I’m sure I wasn’t the only one from around this part of the country who was delighted to see big Malky Mackay win a place in the Carling Cup final on Tuesday night when his in-form Cardiff City side beat Crystal Palace in a nail biting penalty shoot-out.

Malky was a great servant to Norwich City Football Club, playing well over 200 games in a six-year spell with the Canaries, chipping in with a number of crucial goals along the way.

You could always tell the big man was going to go on to become a coach and in the end a manager. He was always talking about the game and was one to voice his opinion whenever we had team meetings – and contrary to what he would have you believe, he wasn’t always right!

He’s taken to becoming a manager like a duck to water. He did a really good job last season at Watford before moving last summer to the Welsh capital. He’s done an unbelievable job in the few months he’s been there considering he had only 12 players to work with when he took over from David Jones.

He’s assembled a quality, hard-working group of players who are third in the Championship and can now look forward to competing in Carling Cup final on February 26. I, along with many others from around Norfolk, would love it (as Kevin Keegan once announced) if he could now go on to win it.

Well, what a tremendous performance and result for the boys at Carrow Road last Saturday. It was a performance full of fight, guts, and togetherness to win a precious point against Chelsea, and I’m sure everyone would have been delighted that the lads kept their first clean sheet of the season. Mind you, as long as they keep scoring more than the opposition nobody will be going on about clean sheets.

It was great to finally hear that Johnny Howson put pen to paper on Tuesday, signing a three and a half year contract with the club. I hope he settles in very quickly and plays the type of football we know he’s capable of and that earned him the captaincy of Leeds Unoted.

So it’s back up the A14 and M6 tomorrow to face West Bromwich Albion for the second time in a fortnight.

After the goalless draw against Chelsea last Saturday the lads are now unbeaten in five games and will most definitely be looking to extend this run to six games.

Roy Hodgson’s men had a tremendous result themselves last week when they travelled to Stoke and came away with all three points, ending a run of three consecutive league defeats.

I’m positive that if the lads can find the same intensity and level of performance that they did last week then they will come away from The Hawthorns with another positive result.

Finally, I would like to wish Korey Smith a successful loan period at Championship club Barnsley.

His opportunities have been limited this season with the strength in depth Paul Lambert has at his disposal, meaning he’s had to go out on loan to get some games under his belt.

Barnsley’s manager Keith Hill is a good man and I’m sure Korey will enjoy his time in South Yorkshire.