THE Man's mental health retreated into a very dark place on Thursday evening. With Bolton leading 1-0 in Munich (thereby threatening to equal our greatest pub boast), and our glorious county subject to severe flood warnings, I felt the gods had truly decided to take out their vengeance upon us.

THE Man's mental health retreated into a very dark place on Thursday evening.

With Bolton leading 1-0 in Munich (thereby threatening to equal our greatest pub boast), and our glorious county subject to severe flood warnings, I felt the gods had truly decided to take out their vengeance upon us.

The Man was unsure quite what karmic error we had made to endure this collective misery, but it troubled me deeply.

The Man walked home from work wondering what would happen next, maybe Godzilla (although I think we sent him back to West Brom) would emerge to wreak havoc in Norwich's pedestrianised city centre?

It doesn't rain, it pours.

However, a new day dawned, Yarmouth survived - and so did our unique Bayern Moonich conquest.

Maybe, just maybe, the tides are beginning to turn in our favour.

As Nelson said upon his triumphant return to Yarmouth's shores: "I am a Norfolk man, and glory in being so!" OTBC.

THE MAN raised an eyebrow this week when Reading players revealed they would donate £5,000 to help supporters travel to Manchester City later in the month.

Apparently the Royals' squad feel so guilty about their indifferent start to the season that they have decided to help out with the exorbitant cost of travelling between Reading and Manchester.

The decision was made with Reading sitting a lowly 12th in the Premier League.

It's a shame for Reading's fan(s) that their club didn't come out with such schemes when they used to visit the Carra in the Championship - they would have pocketed about £1,000 a man.

Good on the Reading players, I suppose, but if their fans don't think they are already getting value for money then I suggest they take one look at League One and remember where they truly belong.

While The Man is on this subject, what is the point in Reading? They are all into F1, hockey and rugby there anyway.

IF THERE was one team we really didn't want to be playing 48hrs after the utterly draining derby game, it was Watford.

The Man understands that Peter Grant was asked whether he wanted to put the game back, but declined saying he was up for the 'challenge'.

Thanks Peter, another masterstroke there then...it's amazing how much damage one man can do in just a year.

The Man is not sure how everyone else felt on Tuesday, but I was still worn out after the **** game, so God knows how the players were feeling.

But the truth is, both Watford and West Brom are currently on a different planet to us, and even with 10 days rest in La Manga ahead of a game with either, we would probably come out on the wrong end of the result.

Again, we can argue all day about how this shambles has come to pass, but that is no good to anyone now, and quite frankly The Man is bored of it.

The next round of inquests into our failures needs to deferred: it is all hands to the pump now.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding like Jolly Roger or Joe Proton, but that is a fact.

After all, this is our club, and if we don't get behind the team now we could just sink without trace.

There was an active defiance amongst the crowd at the Ipswich game, and this is something we need to nurture for the rest of the season.

The Man felt the comeback against the **** was the result of the collective will of 24,000 people and XI players simply refusing to get beat again. It was epic, heroic: the sort of war we'll have to repeat over and over again between now and May to stay in this division.

Aside from West Brom, there really is no reason why we shouldn't go unbeaten for the rest of the season at home (don't laugh), which is where survival can be won.

Don't be in doubt, the vast majority of teams in this division would love to see us go down.

We embarrass them with our support, and we are a bugger to get to.

We might be generally perceived as a nice family club, but the vast majority of Championship clubs would happily cross us off their fixture list, despite the fact we are now a decent bet for three points.

The Man heard one QPR fan on 606 say: "Well at least we don't have to worry about Norwich - they have gone." Ipswich fans are saying the same. Let's ram these words down their throats.

From now until the end of season we (fans and players) need to treat every visiting team as if they have done something deeply disturbing to our family.

Let's direct our anger and frustration at them, and urge our team on.

The Man knows that sounds slightly psychotic, but amid a lack of quality, the Dunkirk spirit is the only way out of this.

Let's make a fight of it; as fans and players it would be shameful if we went down without at least leaving some battle scars.

As Roeder demanded this week, let's lose the 'nice' tag.

OLD TURKEY head Harry Redknapp was in fine form this week, slagging off the Champions League.

He described the first group stage as: "weeks of meaningless practice games, where the fans pay top prices to watch teams already through to the second round - or already doomed.

"The Champions League is fast replacing the Carling Cup as a stage for the reserves to enjoy a few days in a pretty, foreign town and a run out."

Spot on Harry.

The trouble with the current format is that is was established to guarantee the top clubs a certain amount of games (and TV money) and avoid the prospect of them being dumped out of the competition in a one-off shock defeat to one of the 'smaller' teams.

On a similar theme, The Man was interested to see that Fergie has called for teams to be allowed SEVEN substitutes.

Hell, why don't we just let the big clubs field an extra man, as if they haven't got a big enough advantage already?

I tell you what - next time we play them (if we ever do) - why don't we just give them a goal head start? Pathetic stuff.