At this time of the year there are many children making their Christmas lists, and my four-year-old girl is no different.

She's asked Father Christmas for a LOL Toy and an Elsa dress... but, sadly, there are no requests for Norwich City items.

I know back in the mid-80s when I was 10 years old, I wanted the Norwich City tracksuit or a Star Wars Millennium Falcon. I was lucky as I got both. I’m just sad I never kept them.

This Christmas I’m not sure what I want. Possibly thick winter socks to keep me warm during the coming months, especially at Carrow Road, because at the moment with the lack of goals I may need something to keep me warm.

Or I could just ask for some luck to come our way over the coming weeks. It seems Lady Luck has deserted us yet again, especially in the last week with injuries and Covid-related issues.

With more cases happening - especially after recently playing Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United and both clubs having their games postponed in the last week - it put our game at West Ham United today in danger because of Covid issues with City.

I thought this might happen. On Wednesday it was announced that the Premier League Board had turned down requests for games to be postponed this weekend. Now, I don’t know if the requests came from us but it has been reported that Stuart Webber and the club doctor have spoken to the Premier League about the situation.

How can the Premier League Board turn down these requests after allowing those two games and Wednesday’s game between Burnley v Watford to be postponed? It's another example of the inconsistency between clubs throughout the Premier League from the powers that be.

This is not an excuse for what we have had to witness this season, especially on Tuesday night against Aston Villa as that was as poor as I have seen us play this season.

It seems manager Dean Smith has discovered what a challenge he has on his hands and that some of the problems we had before he came in are continuing.


The only players who seem to have come out with some credit on Tuesday, in my opinion, were Tim Krul, Teemu Pukki and Jacob Sorensen.

Another worry is the lack of leadership. It just seems Krul is the only one who is taking the lead at times. He did it on Tuesday, on numerous occasions, running up to the halfway line to get his word across to players. It worries me how some players are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

Another concern is our goal threat. It’s just not happened this season and it’s not Pukki‘s fault. More responsibility is required by them all. I think the missed opportunity on Tuesday by Kenny McLean summed it up for us - there is just no self belief in our team.

Despite how poor we have been at times this season, we are only three points from safety, so we need to still believe we can stay up. I’m not looking at the Derby County records just yet. I honestly believe once we get our players back we can get into winning ways.

For Christmas, I’ll settle for a win over one of the next three opponents - although looking at our record against these three clubs I won’t be expecting much.

West Ham

No wins there in our last nine visits

Crystal Palace

No wins there in our last 16 visits

Arsenal

We’ve only had 2 wins in our 32 meetings.

I may have to settle for socks. Merry Christmas.