The Man In The Stands THIS week the club revealed it was confident of shifting more than 15,000 season tickets by the first renewal deadline. That figure is worth re-stating: more than 15,000.

The Man In The Stands

THIS week the club revealed it was confident of shifting more than 15,000 season tickets by the first renewal deadline.

That figure is worth re-stating: more than 15,000.

The Man, for one, almost takes for granted the support this club gets, but every now and then it is worth contemplating just how far we have come, in terms of the way this city and region now gets behind its football club.

It was not so long ago we were told the club needed to get a 16,000 gate to break even, something we'd more often than not struggle to do.

The Man now can't remember the last time we got just 16,000 for a league game (when we've had four stands to fill).

Tony Pulis was on the radio last week raving about what a big club Stoke are after they pulled a crowd of 23,000 for their game against the ****.

Stoke went top of the league that day.

There was a bigger crowd in the Championship that weekend - and The Man doesn't have to tell you where it was.

This, of course, creates one problem, in that as supporters we now have a certain degree of expectation over where this club should be in the league.

The Man believes our fans are a reasonable bunch, and certainly those expectations are not of an automatic promotion spot, as we realise owners' cheque-books now distort the natural order. See QPR next season.

But the not so lofty prospect of still “being in the hunt for a play-off spot” in March is not an ambition that should really be beyond us. Remarkably, before today's game, that's just about where Roeder had dragged us to...

It may seem a bit negative, but if we are in the same position in this league next season, The Man will be more than happy.

As Glenn warned this week, Norwich's squad is “too bare” for a club of this size. He is 100 per cent correct, and it is something we have all been aware of for some time.

What we must now be prepared to do is give GR the time and space to rebuild it.

Although The Man will look

forward to next season with optimism, Glenn has got one hell of a job on this summer to fill the holes left by Dion and Hux, as well as the loan

departures.

He is reaping the barren harvest of what previous regimes have sown, and we must stay patient while he tries to correct that.

Certainly the season ticket sales will give him every faith in the fact that we believe he can do it.

t TYKES HAVE IDEAS ABOVE THEIR STATION

“IT IS difficult to swallow when you beat the five-time European champions and then you don't get a result at Norwich,” said Barnsley's manager - don't know his name - after last week's game.

Such sentiments were echoed by the members of Barnsley's Brain Trust whom The Man had to sit next to on a train after the match.

“What a comedown eh? Winning at Liverpool and losing to bloody Norwich!” said their leader, as he handed out cans of Fosters to his obese kids.

For the next 40 minutes, until the majority of Norwich fans got off at Ely, passengers were also treated to choruses of “inbred” and songs about how we sleep with our mothers.

Nothing we've not heard before of course, but when it was coming from a group of people that looked like extras from Deliverance it was a bit harder to take.

The Man had liked Barnsley for knocking out Liverpool, as well as being an annual source of six points, but their manager and fans got right up my snout.

Just for the record, it is a “comedown” that we even have to be in the same league as their windswept dump, and Barnsley's fans should be grateful they are going to grounds like Carrow Road, as in reality they should be on League One's A-Z.

Which, incidentally, is where we relegated them to a few years back.

t YELLOW CAUSE IS SPREADING FAR AND WIDE

Spot the odd one out from last weekend's long distance supporters parade: Norwegian Canaries, French Canaries, Yarmouth Yellows...

The Man knows the YYs are a very decent and loyal faction of our support, but how the 20-mile trip from Yarmouth to Norwich qualified them as “long distance” I will never know.

Still, it was good to see the various exiled elements of our Tifosi on the Carrow Road pitch.

The Man's particular favourite was the fellow with the Norway flag, who looked like Benny Hill.

It's great to know the yellow cause spreads far and wide.

OTBC.

t CLARKSON'S OWN GOAL

I KNOW he's popular with the certain under-belly of society, but The Man has never liked Jeremy Clarkson.

He's said some nasty things about Nelson's fine county in recent years, and I just can't get past those boarding school tones and barbecue slacks.

Therefore The Man was pleased to see Clarkson's attempted pop at Delia serve only to expose his own shortcomings in sporting knowledge.

In a newspaper article last week he wrote: “Delia Smith says that Britain's broken, yobbish, drunken, vomiting, pregnant-at-12 society could be mended if youngsters replaced Bacardi Breezers with a season ticket to Norwich United.”

Yes, he could have been referring to Plantation Park, but The Man very much doubts it. What a plonker.