Last 20 games:
Norwich – 4 wins
Sunderland – 5 wins
Swansea – 5 wins
Southampton – 5 wins
Newcastle – 6 wins
West Brom – 5 wins
Villa – 6 wins
Fulham – 6 wins
Stoke – 4 wins
West Ham – 6 wins

So if that penalty had gone in against Southampton the story would have been very different. Looking at those figures suggests that this season is likely to be typical if we continue to stay up. What do people expect, top 6 or 7?

Certainly a lot of the things you point out make it difficult for the fans to really get behind him and the team – especially in the wake of Lambert, things like seemingly refusing to change any tactics mid-game or attempting to make anything other than last minute like-for-like substitutions are very frustrating for passive spectators. We were spoilt in that respect under Lambert, who was always ready to risk everything for 3 points, and having been used to that approach for 3 seasons, the apparent happiness to settle for the draw is a jarring contrast. In particular, games like Reading away, and Southampton and Newcastle at home seemed like they were there for the taking but ended up fizzling out.

I think for a lot of fans this feels like a lack of ambition on the part of Hughton, but it is also the case that the ambition was just slightly different this year. Every single season under Lambert was played with a certain degree of freedom – we didn’t necessarily expect to go up from League 1 in his first year, especially after our infamous start; we certainly didn’t expect to go straight up again in the Championship; and while we of course hoped to stay in the Premier League last year, we had also prepared for the possibility of having to drop down that first year before planning on getting re-promoted – all part of McNally and Co’s 5 year plan or whatever. So that brief would have afforded Lambert and the squad to play with little pressure, allowed him to roll the dice and go for it in some games knowing that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if it didn’t come off. In this respect, Hughton’s task was wholly different. It was clear, largely due to the financial repercussions, that survival in the Premier League this season was more of a necessity. I can’t help but think that Lambert would have known this – and while Villa are nominally a bigger club, in some respects their expectations for this year were less than ours, and this gave Lambert a similar opportunity of freedom that he may have known he would have lost here had he stayed on. Our requirement to stay up this year generated a lot more pressure, for Hughton, the players and the supporters, which naturally will have affected the players on the pitch at certain times. It also meant that quite often settling for the draw would actually probably be more important in the long run than risking everything. Of course, it’s pretty difficult to rationalise all this when sitting in the rain wondering why the hell we’re playing such a boring game and not making any attempt to change it.

But while the tactics were admittedly often drab, looking back at the results now it does also make you wonder what everyone got so het up about. Last year, at home (where the majority of supporters watch the team) we took 27 points – 7 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses. This year we took 31 – 8 wins, 7 draws, 4 losses, including great wins against Arsenal, United and Everton. For all the moaning, we actually watched Norwich get better results than last year.

Of course, the quality of the football on show remains important, and few fans would want to go down the road of taking results at all costs above entertainment – but for this particular year, I think that was an acceptable course of action. Next year is a different story. But even then, I wonder what realistic expectations we can have for the club. Would it be good enough to take 11th again, if we play some nicer football? I personally would like a really solid run at a cup for once. I wouldn’t have swapped our season for Wigan’s this year; but I’d take 17th and an FA Cup next year?

But like, the others have said, still a positive season overall, if a bit dull and predictable at times. Looking forward to getting my hands on a new kit!

It was partly about value for money – I had to miss several games for work, which meant my fantastic City Stand seat was costing me over £60 a game, and too often it simply wasn’t worth it when set against a gig or a show. My missus got thoroughly fed up with me coming home grumpy and cheated. As did I; for months I felt on edge or deflated, and generally dreaded the next game, unless I could somehow convince myself I really wasn’t bothered. And I was supposed to be enjoying this!

But then in amongst the dross, there were some real high points. The performance against Man U was the most disciplined and concentrated team display I have ever seen; and as a long-ago Leeds fan it didn’t half cheer me up to see the buggers humbled. Even some of the draws were actually very good games, against the better lower teams – Southampton and Swansea for example. And the Everton game was a cracker – two good honest clubs playing bright intelligent football, with a match-winning substitution.

Certainly when set against the previous three seasons it was a big let-down. Hughton had been given the brief to stay up at all costs, probably a sensible one, and he chose to do that by tightly organised and cautious defense. In the end it did the trick, with the lovely flourish at the end when they felt able to relax a bit. I have a feeling that Lambert had run out of steam at Norwich, and that the players might have begun to see through his ‘charisma’. He’s hardly done great things at Villa and without Benteke they would have gone down. Lambert looks to have aged 5 years in one season, and I’m not sure he’s capable of sustaining the intensity his approach seems to require. Villa, with their ridiculous expectations and really nasty fans, always was a strange career move. With the other ‘big’ jobs filling up quickly (and does anyone else suspect he went to Villa because he was pissed off at missing Liverpool?), they may just be stuck with each other.

As for Norwich, reasons to be cheerful? Plenty really; the signs of a more adventurous approach building on the defensive solidity. Good young players – the Bennetts, the great (and still strangely underrated by NC fans) Jonny Howson, the other Leeds old boys, including my player of the season Snoddy, Pilkington – all coming of age as footballers at the same time. Holt and Hoolahan still have plenty to offer. And Ricky van Wolfswinkel – very highly thought of in Holland, where I was recently. Someone I spoke to in Utrecht where he’s from reckons the Premier League will speed and sharpen him up in just the way he needs, that a ‘small town club’ like Norwich is a great choice for him, and that we may well have another RVP on our hands. Other signings will follow – I still think Hooper may come, and there’s plenty of bargains to be had in Europe.

I’m relieved I can pick and choose my games next season, but I suspect it’ll be a more settled and consistently enjoyable one. The promoted teams really will struggle, and some more of the ‘Premier League wallpaper’ (Sunderland, Newcastle, Fulham) will continue to go stale. And can we please, somehow, get rid of Stoke for crimes against football?

Sure we had a bad run, but we always will. I think a lot of Norwich fans need a severe reality check. We’re a lower Premier, upper championship side, sure we may over achieve briefly, but it’s not sustainable, that simple.

I don’t accept the view we ‘relied’ on other teams, that’s just football, any sport in fact! Nobody said we relied on Arsenal to qualify for Europe, but we did with that thinking, it’s just how you think about it. There was this constant belief that all other teams would start winning all their games. If anything that great run probably made the players and fans a little over-confident, I tweeted after the Arsenal game saying I didn’t think we’d win for ten given the fixtures, not in a negative sense, but a realistic one, it took us longer to get over that than I’d hoped but I always felt confident we would.

I also think some fans played their part in that run. The atmosphere in the ground was woeful and vastly more negative than the football, the boo boys lost Moro so picked on Howson, I fail to see what this achieves I just don’t understand, it only harms the team you claim to support.

It’s not for me positivity breeds positivity, I have no time for moaners, seriously it’s a miracle some of these people can get dressed in the mornings, maybe they had help, and I for one think Hughton has done brilliantly and that we are a much, much better team than under Lambert. Is it as exciting, no, do I care, No. Although I’ll tell you this, I was pretty excited against Arsenal, Man Utd, Reading, Spurs, Villa (despite losing) Man City. I won’t defend games like Fulham and Newcastle that cried out for a more attacking approach or the late subs, but on the whole, looking at the entire season brilliant, truly brilliant.