In footballing terms, Christmas is seen as one of the big deciding periods during the long hard season; when valuable points can be won or lost and the proverbial men are sorted from the boys.

In footballing terms, Christmas is seen as one of the big deciding periods during the long hard season; when valuable points can be won or lost and the proverbial men are sorted from the boys.

Hit a rich vein of form now and the turn of the New Year can seem a whole lot brighter. There can be no question that clubs with the bigger squads and healthier resources stand a better chance of negotiating the festive period successfully. Regrettably I'm not wholly convinced we fit that category.

One thing's for sure: it's gonna be tough to find a City fan that isn't looking forward to seeing the results of Mr Grant's first dabble in the January sales.

For Norwich, consistency has been seemingly impossible to achieve since the first kick of a ball back in August, and I can't see us rediscovering anything of it without the introduction of new blood once the window reopens.

Any hopes of a serious and creditable play-off challenge will depend largely upon adding strength in the needed areas and I just hope the right personnel are out there for the manager to grab.

In spite of the wobbly and uninspiring start to this season's campaign though, it is encouraging to see no obvious downward effect on attendances.

Even top-placed Birmingham don't command the gates we continue to enjoy at Carrow Road.

I note even our very own much loved Atlas Lion, Youssef Safri, was quoted in the Pink 'Un for saying about the Canary faithful: “They are the best fans I have ever played in front of, even in Morocco, even at Coventry, anywhere in the world.”

It gives me great pride to report that support from the Capital Canaries has probably never been better. Our allocation of 40 seats on trains travelling up from London are filled with our members week in week out. Just think how many extra we might need when the team starts doing well!

If that's not enough, the 50 places for our annual 'Christmas' (it's held in February) meal, which is again to be held at Delia's Restaurant, were snapped up in 48 hours.

So the backing is there, the hope is most certainly there. I just hope that the lads can add a decent dollop of cream to the Christmas pudd and see that we end the year on a bit of a high so that 2007 can be entered with a genuine sense of renewed and sustained optimism.