When you’re sent to commentate on a football match and end up doing your most significant broadcast from South Mimms Service Station you know it’s been a surreal day.

I wouldn’t have guessed it on Saturday morning and still hadn’t seen it coming when the final whistle blew to signal the end of Norwich City’s nerve-shredding 2-1 win at Brentford.

It felt like a significant win. All of those unwanted records that had been tortuously copied down in my commentary notebook week after week had finally been crossed out.

At 3pm on Saturday the Canaries had no Premier League win in 20 games, no away goals this season, were yet to lead a league game and hadn’t scored two in a top flight match since December 2019. They gradually ticked all of those boxes and Daniel Farke was finally able to dust off his traditional post-match ‘oles’ in front of the away supporters.

During those celebrations a shot of Stuart Webber flicked up on the monitor in front of us. I commented on the fact that he seemed to be doing his best not to smile. Yet still the penny didn’t drop. He knew what was coming.

The rest of us only found out later on. Rob Butler and I had packed up the commentary equipment, waved our goodbyes to our summariser Leon Barnett and were enjoying a chirpy start to our journey home when the call came. Daniel Farke was about to be sacked.

An extra emergency hour of Canary coverage was needed and the next place we could stop was the car park at South Mimms.

These big moments always seem to come at the most challenging times. I remember covering Bryan Gunn’s sudden departure while on a train down to Exeter with Neil Adams.

We were on our way to commentate on City’s League One fixture the following day. When Adams himself was dismissed I was feeding the ducks at Diss Mere with my then four-year old son. The great thing about the digital age is that anywhere can become a live radio studio.

Once the adrenalin rush of covering a big breaking news story faded and the M11 gave way to the A11 the human side of the day began to sink in.

Daniel Farke had gone from the joy of winning three Premier League points to being out of work before we’d got out of London. Yes, football managers get paid handsomely for their troubles, but that’s partly because it is one of the least sentimental jobs around.

One win over Brentford, as good as it felt, was never going to paper over the cracks caused by the return of two points from the first 10 games of the season. Even Farke admitted he had expected better.

Perhaps the German’s main issue is that the job he was trying to do this season was so different to the one he was appointed to do.

In the summer of 2017 Norwich had failed to bounce straight back to The Premier League with a squad of high earners. They needed an emergency rebuild. Financial pressures meant the wage bill had to drop, experienced players needed to be moved on and it was essential that younger academy products were given an opportunity to become the next big thing. Oh, and when you’re in charge of Norwich City in The Championship you are still expected to win most weeks even with all of that going on.

Farke excelled not so much in gambling on youth but showing faith in young players at the right time. He’s been so good at meeting all of the targets set out in May 2017 that in November 2021 Norwich City is a very different beast.

Tens of millions of pounds has been spent in the most recent transfer window. The next head coach will need to get a squad, many of whom are full internationals, to fight tooth and nail for Premier League survival.

By acting now Norwich City have perhaps given themselves a better chance of staying up. For all Stuart Webber’s transfer window wizardry, it’s hard to escape the feeling that this next recruitment call is the most important of his time at Carrow Road.

Farke tribute

It would be wrong to let Daniel Farke leave without mentioning what a pleasure he has been to deal with.

Doing this job means speaking to the Norwich City head coach more times than most members of my own family. He’s been there, in front of one of our microphones, before and after all of his games in charge. So that’s at least 416 interviews before we get into pre-season and all of the other occasional chats.

The best thing I can say about Farke is that I’ve rarely met anyone so constant. Whether Norwich were 14th in The Championship, winning promotion or getting relegated his manner barely changed. We always got the same Daniel Farke. That ability to be consistent, no matter what was going on, is a quality you don’t see often in life and is certainly lacking in the frantic world of football. Not many managers stay in the same job for four-and-a-half years.

It was a pleasure to commentate on the two Championship titles, particularly the one that wasn’t achieved behind closed doors. The 2018-19 season is down in yellow and green folklore forever.

It was so good that it even created a wave that could just about be ridden into The Premier League. Teemu Pukki’s hat-trick against Newcastle and the never to be forgotten victory against Manchester City suggested, just briefly, that Farkeball may even be able to flourish at the highest level. Those memories will never be tarnished.

We’ll always have those. While the nature of his departure felt brutal when it was confirmed on Saturday it was at least fitting that he finished with a win.

The run of just two points from 20 Premier League games across two seasons had threatened to undermine his reputation so his departure was understandable.

I’d like to think our paths will cross again but after all of those hundreds of interviews I dare say he’s had more than enough of my questions.