David Cuffley Norwich City will be entering unfamiliar territory if they maintain their revival under manager Paul Lambert with victory over Walsall in Saturday's League One meeting at Carrow Road.
David Cuffley
Norwich City will be entering unfamiliar territory if they maintain their revival under manager Paul Lambert with victory over Walsall in Saturday's League One meeting at Carrow Road.
It is more than 18 months since the Canaries last won three successive league games - and they have managed the feat only twice in more than five years.
City will be bidding to follow up comfortable victories over Wycombe and Hartlepool in the new manager's first two league matches in charge by beating the Saddlers, who have not won in six attempts in all competitions since a 1-0 success at Brighton on the opening day of the season.
That statistic ought to offer encouragement to Lambert's men as they seek the win that will take them closer to the leading pack from their current position of 10th.
The new boss has already made it plain he has no interest in discussing the past, so will not be troubled by the fact that the last time City won three league fixtures in a row was in January and February 2008. That was when former boss Glenn Roeder was digging them out of relegation trouble in the Championship and a 1-0 home win over Preston, courtesy of Darel Russell's late goal, was sandwiched between two away victories, 1-0 at Southampton and 2-1 at Cardiff.
The only other example of three or more successive league wins for City since they won the Nationwide League title in 2003-04 is the five-match winning sequence that brought Nigel Worthington the Championship manager of the month award in December 2005, a run of games in which Paul McVeigh, pictured, now back on City's books, scored four times.
Meanwhile, the Canaries are a step closer to discovering their next Johnstone's Paint Trophy opponents after Monday's 1-0 win over Brentford.
The second round draw has been regionalised with the 32 teams split into four sections. City will face one of the seven other sides in Southern Section East - Barnet, Brighton, Charlton, Gillingham, Leyton Orient, MK Dons or Southend.
The draw will take place on Sky Sports' Soccer AM programme on Saturday.
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