International break could not have come at a worse time for Norwich City

The West Midlands has not always been a happy hunting ground for Norwich. I have tried to blank out some of the more awful results and performances both at the Hawthorns and down the road at Molineux over the years. That said, there have been some happier times, and Saturday was surely one of them.

With a steely determination and sheer grit that we have been wanting from the team all season, they managed to grind out a result. It wasn’t pretty at times, but I really don’t care. All I care about is that we came away with three points.

At last the luck seems to be going our way. We could not have asked for a better result in the Tyne/Wear derby on Sunday, and Palace are now being dragged into the relegation dogfight. The goal itself was a lucky event in itself, an awful miss-kick or a brilliant dummy, but whatever it was, it got us our first away win since Man Utd which seems like an age ago.

And now we are on a run. Yes, two clean sheets in a row can be determined ‘a run’. It was plain to see on Saturday that finally we look like a team that believes they can stay up, and with the fans behind them, what seemed impossible a couple of weeks ago now seems possible.

I have never been a fan of international breaks and this one could not have come at a worse time. We have built up some momentum and now we have been stopped firmly in our tracks.

What possible benefit can be achieved by playing friendly matches at this critical time of the season? To make it worse, the break has come at Easter, traditionally a time when we used to have to play two matches in four days – I am feeling very bereft.

Many of our squad are out on International duty and I am more worried than ever about those players picking up an injury that could see them miss the rest of the domestic campaign. We have enough players carrying slight knocks or getting over injuries, and we certainly don’t need any more.

So I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone comes back to Norwich fit and healthy ready for the fight to stay up.

• Blog post written by Lorraine Taylor