Norwich City v Middlesbrough: Pink Un Preview Show video

The Canaries are hoping to take their unbeaten home run beyond the year mark by avoiding defeat, but head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup will aim for all three points after consecutive draws on the road.

Boro won't make it easy, however, having claimed a confidence-boosting win over Sheffield United in midweek to bring them level on points with Norwich.

City correspondents Adam Harvey and Connor Southwell sat down to look ahead to the game in the latest edition of the Pink Un Preview Show, discussing a range of topics including Jack Wilshere's arrival, the visitors' strengths and recent changes in the Carrow Road boardroom.

Watch the full Preview Show above, or read an excerpt below.

AH: On the home record, it'll be a year if Norwich do manage to avoid defeat against Middlesbrough. Connor, we've spoken a lot about this home record, it feels like it's been a theme now for three or four months.

Every time we say 'oh, if they can just get the win it'll be x amount of games unbeaten at home', but to make it a year if they do go unbeaten against Middlesbrough, that'd be quite some record, wouldn't it?

CS: It's tremendous. I think for any club at any level ever to go a year unbeaten at home is phenomenal. The reality is that it's going to end at some point, and they're going to lose a game at Carrow Road competitively.

When you keep mentioning it and it builds up and builds up then it can become a little bit of a barrier. But it does build a confidence when you go in this type of run, and it doesn't seem that it's become a barrier for this Norwich City squad.

I think if you'd said to any of us after that Blackburn game last year, probably even David Wagner himself, that City would be one game from a year unbeaten 12 months on, we probably would have asked you to book a doctor's appointment.

So it's incredible what they've achieved, and Wagner's team deserve credit as well as what Johannes Hoff Thorup has implemented. There's more of a willingness and desire to come to Carrow Road than there was 12 months ago when this record wasn't in place.

I think this is probably going to be one of the toughest test so far though, in terms of opposition. If they can navigate it then we can talk about what a tremendous record it would be.

The Canaries' home form has been excellent over the last year (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd) AH: Yeah, they're going to be a difficult test. Obviously a good win against Sheffield United, and although it was successive defeats prior to that they have got a little bit more momentum coming to Norfolk.

The underlying data for Middlesbrough is actually quite positive. They're third on average possession in the league, they have the most expected goals in the division, second most accurate passes, most touches in the opposition box. They've had two years under Michael Carrick now, so it feels like it could be a positive season for them.

They probably should be in a higher position. Is it a bit of a false position for them at the moment?

CS: Yeah completely for me, completely false. Their expected goal difference is the second-best in the division, so we're talking about a real quality team in terms of their performance levels.

Outcomes aren't necessarily controllable, because you can create chances but not take them, you can have really clinical opposition, there's luck, there are all types of factors. So all sorts of things can mean that sort of data doesn't translate into results.

But as a general rule of thumb, when you have really good performance data over a season you tend to do really well, so they are a team I expect to be up their contending for automatic promotion this season. Carrick is an excellent coach.

AH: We've also spoken a lot about Jack Wilshere, whose appointment as a first-team coach was confirmed this week. What does he bring to this coaching department that Norwich haven't already got? Is it the ability to be an inspiration to those younger players, in terms of his career as a player himself?

CS: That is one of the main attributes he brings, that experience of playing at a really high level and what that does for him. There is that instant respect and that willingness to open your mind a little bit more to what they're telling you.

But ultimately that has a shelf life, it only lasts so long. Then it's about the coaching ability, and whether that's good enough to make you want to listen as well. Jack Wilshere's playing ability will get him so far, and then it'll be about how good a coach he is, how good his sessions are, how good the information that he's passing on is.

That's where the coaches who have played at the highest level are able to combine that experience with the advice and the sessions that they're putting on.