Spud Thornhill: A 40-year roller coaster, courtesy of Norwich City

Back on 1982, little did I know what the next four decades was going to bring - Norwich City have given me every emotion going, from deep joy to sadness, as well as many miles travelled by car, train, plane and boat.

I've spent far too much money to watch us lose at soulless grounds like Old Trafford and I've got free tickets from Trevor Putney after I told him I had already got him in the 1987 Panini football sticker album.

Raymond de Waard in City colours (Image: Archant)

I've seen promotion-winning goals to late goals condemning us to relegation. I've seen talented players like Darren Eadie to maybe less talented ones like Raymond de Waard.

I've sang On The Ball City to Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.

And I still get the same buzz now when Norwich score as I did when I was seven years old - it was amazing when Josh Sargent scored his second last week.

There are so many things I’m grateful for - but none more than last week.

A fortnight ago I talked about my daughter Amelia, who is starting to enjoy football and, more importantly, Norwich City. Well, last week she was one of the mascots at the Millwall game. I was not sure who was more excited about her about being a mascot, me or Amelia.

Apart from her being hit on the head by a flying ball, she loved her night. The staff involved were great and it was so enjoyable watching her take part. And it was made even more special with the three points.

After our defeat a fortnight ago, it looked a bit gloomy on the Canaries front for some fans. But if you looked at the stats from the first three games, most Norwich fans must’ve thought to themselves a win wouldn’t be far away.

Don’t try and explain XG to me as I find it all double Dutch - I just go with the old-fashioned way of looking at our performances to judge how we are doing.

Football fans can be very quick to judge and that was no more apparent before the Huddersfield game when we heard Teemu Pukki was out and Sargent was leading the line. Then there was the worry of another midfielder in the left back position - Kenny McClean was our fourth left back in as many games. The normal, predictable comments were being made by some, of how we were going to struggle against Huddersfield.

The social media critics must have been rubbing their hands in glee with all these knock-backs. Okay, we may have made hard work of it against Huddersfield, but we got that all important first league win.

On to Millwall on Friday, and it was Sargent who rightly got most of the praise, but it was the whole team performance under the lights which impressed me. It was a great result, but it was not just the result that made it memorable - Amelia’s mascot appearance capped it off.

With the game being shown on TV, it was so nice to hear so many positive comments from national pundits - makes a pleasant change from last season’s constant jokes with the national media.

Watching players like Marcelino Nunez is already a joy. It seems he has been playing in the English league for many years rather than just a few weeks. What we have seen from Gabriel Sara so far, I think we’ve got another talent from South America.

And we had the added bonus of seeing Adam Idah returning on Tuesday and scoring. Whatever happens before next Thursday's deadline day, I’m sure things will be done correctly for the all-round benefit of the club.

But before that, let’s hope Norwich can produce another good TV appearance at Sunderland and show the nation we are the team to beat in the Championship.

Here’s to the next 40 years of watching the ups and downs of our wonderful football club we are lucky to call Norwich City.