‘Do your duty’ is Daniel Farke’s message to the lucky Norwich City fans at Carrow Road for Sheffield Wednesday’s Championship visit on Saturday.

Farke insists there is a huge responsibility on the 2,000 allowed to attend as part of professional football’s bid to get supporters back into stadiums on a regular basis.

City held a successful test event in September in a 2-2 home draw against Alex Neil’s Preston. But that proved to be a one off pilot before tighter lockdown measures were re-introduced in response to the pandemic.

Farke feels the return of fans could not be better timed with his injury-hit squad in need of a boost.

“My players have a big responsibility to represent the yellow shirt. But so too the 2,000 inside the stadium,” said Farke. “I want them to bring the noise of 30,000.

"I hope they scream a little bit louder, cheer a little bit louder. Let us have the greatest atmosphere we can get at Carrow Road for this game. The players deserve it. They are going through a difficult time. But they are top of the league.

“It is one more step back to reality. We had this pilot project against Preston and this worked quite well for us - both in terms of safety and the atmosphere and mood inside the stadium. To have 2,000 back is good but we are waiting for the full stadiums. It is always a boost for the team who has this support.

"If you go through difficult times, you feel a bit tired and you have that encouragement from the supporters, then you cannot let them down. You have to fight, you have to keep running.

"It is more emotional and always a boost for the home team. That is shown in the statistics.”

Norwich were on the wrong end of ‘fan power’ in the 3-1 midweek defeat at Luton.

Farke made it clear after the game he felt the 1,000 home fans in attendance had played their part with some of the crucial calls from the officials.

“We are not free from our emotions. If the ref is getting 1,000, 2,000 or maybe a full stadium asking for decisions it is hard not to be influenced in some way,” said Farke. “I am not saying that with any bad intentions. The referee made some calls I didn’t agree with and that is normal.

"I just want to have that support behind us at Carrow Road. I want to see the yellow shirts.

“I hope the 2,000 at Carrow Road are loud proud, fly the yellow flag and help us because we are still in a bit of a difficult situation. We definitely need their support.”