It seems mildly amusing it took a visit from England Under-21s for Carrow Road to benefit from our summer ‘ground expansion’. Given there was a fair amount of fuss around it all during the break, The Man wonders how much benefit the extra seats have generated over the cost of putting them in?

It’s early days. The arrival of the derby, dirty Leeds and some proper clubs should see it pay off.

But it would be silly for anyone at the club to take our attendances for granted.

The Man always enjoys a bit of pride when we host something like Friday’s game – and similar disdain when the Under-21s head somewhere dodgy.

The England set-up is largely irrelevant – The Man is a fan of his club, not the game.

But doing our city proud, that’s well worth the effort.

• Now the season is starting to get going, that Sunday fixture in late November is starting to trouble The Man.

Being a City fan is easy when I****** are somewhere else – especially if it’s below.

But even last season in the doldrums had its solace.

Plus smashing Col Who and Mad Cowling was plenty enough fun to make up for the lack of any proper derby.

Now both sides are ticking along, those painful shudders are returning. The panic and sweats before kick-off. The fact you’d rather just wake up once it’s all over and either hide or celebrate.

One season off, and we’re back there again – and The Man doubts it’ll be pretty.

• Poorman Road is never the best place to sit – but imagine having not only I****** trying to play football in front of you, but dirty Leeds as well?

The “smoke device” that turned up here for the Hull game would have gone to far better use down the A140 last weekend.

We’re going to sample the ‘delights’ from both within the next two months – in fact, The Man expects we’re quickly going to find out whether we really are a good Chumpionship side or not this season pretty soon.

All very well us turning up for routine wins over Barnsley et al, but QPR and Cardiff will be different – even though it feels like they’ve both cheated financially.

Plus Lambo clearly doesn’t want us to get excited – that’s fine. The Man plays glum very well.

So... 31 points from safety.

• The Man thought this was going to be the season. So we’ll leave it at a simple “bloody Wigan”.

Surely they’re not going to get away with passing for a proper club for another season . . . ?