Ian Russell, Capital Canaries If you asked me for a prediction before the match at Coventry two weeks ago, I would have confidently said that we would get something from the game. My predictions, far too often ruled by the heart and not the head, have never been known as consistently accurate but against a struggling side at the wrong end of the table I truly couldn't see us slipping up.

Ian Russell, Capital Canaries

If you asked me for a prediction before the match at Coventry two weeks ago, I would have confidently said that we would get something from the game. My predictions, far too often ruled by the heart and not the head, have never been known as consistently accurate but against a struggling side at the wrong end of the table I truly couldn't see us slipping up.

Head or heart can't predict two sending offs and I'd got it wrong again.

Ironically, it was the win over Coventry City at Carrow Road that kick-started our season back in late November and the defeat at the Ricoh signalled another battle to gain the required points and avoid the drop. It's incredible to think that, less than a month before, we were talking about an outside chance of a play-off place.

And now, I just want us to get points as quickly as possible so that we can relax, write the 2007-08 season off as a bad job and start looking to build for August.

I can't see Scunthorpe or Colchester getting out of trouble which means one of potentially eight teams could still get sucked in to fill the final position. Make no mistake; we are one of the eight.

So, for the second time in the season, Mr Roeder is going to have to gather his troops and plot at least a couple of results from the games he has left.

As things stand at this moment, we are of course in the relatively enviable position of being able to shape our own destiny. There's nothing worse than having to rely and hope on other teams messing up and I sincerely trust it doesn't come to that.

Home games will prove to be the key. In addition to today's game with Colchester, the match with Burnley on April 5 will be viewed as a 'must win'. We don't want to be going to Ipswich desperate for a win and, perhaps worse still, we have to avoid leaving it until the last game at Sheffield Wednesday before we are already safe.

The odds will still be against Norwich being relegated, but the fear is our recent Newcastle United-esque form. The slope towards the trap door can be a slippery one and the quicker we climb away the sooner we can all unwind.

On the ball, City!