Spud Thornhill: Accentuating the positives – the best way to enjoy Norwich City

I’ve always said I wouldn’t want to be a fan of Manchester City or Manchester United ... winning all the while.

Nah, I’ve always believed it’s the low moments that make you appreciate the good ones. If I think of all the bad moments watching Norwich City, the good ones outweigh them, especially this season.

It’s the bit between 9.25pm and 9.35pm that you pay your money for, because there’s nothing else in this world that can give you such contrasting emotions. The highs, the lows. In some sick or sadomasochistic way, I love it.

Sitting where I do every home game, on Wednesday night I had a great view of Ben Godfrey’s goal. The celebrations with my friend were up there with the last-minutes goals from Teemu Pukki or Onel Hernandez this season. It got even better a couple of minutes later with Christoph Zimmermann’s superb header. The noise was right up there with the sound that greeted Simeon Jackson’s hat-trick goal against Derby.

Watching the celebrations from the players to the whole coaching staff on the bench just feet away from me was a wonderful moment. Those moments can’t be bought. It also showed where this club is currently at. Together. Every single one.

And then I could only sink into my chair when Reading equalised and with me sitting four seats away from the away dug-out, it was painful to watch the Reading coaching team celebrate. But I knew I had to accept it, take it in – and when we do win promotion, I will savour the moment and it will make up for it.

Once the final whistle went and with me sitting on the front row next to the dug-outs, I witnessed the contrasting emotions. Reading players and coaching staff celebrated like they had just stayed up but, unfortunately for them, they are still in the mix for relegation.

Our players were so down and it was so horrible to see youngsters like Godfrey, who put so much into the game, looking so low. As he pulled his shirt over his head, you can only imagine what he was thinking. I really wanted to go on to the pitch and tell him it was okay.

I noticed, once Godfrey scored his goal, he wasn’t interested in celebrating – instead, he was extremely keen to get the game restarted and go and get a second. I love watching that passion and determination.

Well, we scored that second – sadly we know what happened in injury time.

Walking away from the ground, I had that low feeling, but at the same time the warm feeling of knowing I’d just witnessed something which will be talked about for years to come. No negatives, but positivity.

Once I started looking at social media, I realised the famous Norwich City doom and gloom merchants had finally come out of the woodwork, where they’ve been hiding since around Christmas. People were criticising players and saying ‘if we play like that again we are more likely to stay down’. I really couldn’t believe what I was reading. With me being me, I gave those people my words of wisdom.

Luckily the majority of the posts I’ve seen and what I heard were very positive, especially when you think about the amount of points, wins, goals and performances we’ve achieved, especially in the last couple of months. With that, being top of league, seven points ahead of third place, our support in our last two home games, things can’t look any better, especially with the added factor of over 5,000 Canaries travelling up north for a Sunday mid-day kick-off.

Well, things can get better – by 5pm tonight we can be rejoicing in Ipswich Town’s relegation to League One.

Goiiiiing Up, Going Down……..