Iwan Roberts on Norwich at Middlesbrough, Sainz and Ipswich

They looked in complete control of the game, had taken a deserved lead through Ashley Barnes - and then it all started going wrong.

Only Borja Sainz will know if he meant to kick out at Jonny Howson on purpose after the former City man’s heavy challenge on him.

If I’m honest, there looked to be forward movement in Sainz’s right foot towards Howson’s thigh and, of course, the Boro man was going to make the most of it after he felt Sainz’s studs on his skin.

It’s something I’ve done myself a long time ago when playing at The New Den. After a strong challenge by the notorious Terry Hurlock, I kicked out at him as I was flat on my back. But to be fair to Terry, he didn’t pretend as if he’d been hit with a sledgehammer - he simply put his studs right in the middle of my chest and it was the Millwall man who received his marching orders.. I’d got away with it.

Sadly, on this occasion, Sainz didn’t and it was a soft red card - like the one he was shown at West Brom after 33 minutes. It was the same outcome as Norwich also went on to lose that game. Sainz has got that petulant side to his game that comes out every now and then and that needs to stop.

What City need to do is grind out some wins if they are to get into the play-offs. They are at home to Rotherham, bottom of the table, this weekend and heading to Norwich on the back of a 5-0 thrashing by Coventry. But it doesn’t matter what the game looks like, there is only one thing that matters now – three points.

Take last Saturday’s 1-0 home win over Sunderland. Probably not the greatest game, but it doesn't matter.

It was a horrible day, wasn't it? Torrential rain just before kick-off. Hard to get going, wasn't a classic – if it’s in your back garden you’d close the curtains, wouldn't you?

At this stage of the season, if you're fighting for anything, whether it's staying in the league or fighting for automatic promotion or trying to get into the top six, I'm not too concerned about performances. If you're not playing well, just make sure you get all three points. Against Sunderland they kept on going and got the goal in the end - and you just got the feeling that one goal was always going to be enough.

It’s so tight at the top of the table – Leicester, Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton have got the top four places wrapped up. Then you have West Brom 10 points behind on 60 points and Hull in the final play-off spot with 57. Then it’s Norwich (55), Coventry (54) and Preston (53)… they’re the ones left in the race, but I do think Preston will fall away.

Hull are at home to Leicester this weekend and City have the bottom side so it could change again.

It’s been a question of opposites of form, home and away, for Norwich – just one away win, at Hull, in 2024.

I think one of the reasons they are poor travellers is because we live that far away from everywhere. The team has to travel the day before a game, stay in a hotel, which sounds great, but you're sleeping in a bed that you're not used to. You can never tell if you're going to get a good night's sleep. Yes, your food is prepared, that’s brilliant, but I'd rather eat my own food and get my own nutrition.

You could be travelling three, four or five hours on a bus – we certainly used to back in the day. Nigel Worthington insisted that everybody got together for breakfast, everybody came down for pre-match. But I couldn't do that, I couldn't have breakfast and a pre-match. At home, you are left to your own devices. I’d be up at half eight, take the dog for a walk, watch Soccer AM, have my pre-match at 11am, a bowl of soup or a toasted ham sandwich, then I just got ready for the game. I'd be at Carrow Road by 1pm. I had the same routine. I was in my own environment. I wasn’t sharing a room with someone – not with a Craig Fleming who was snoring his head off and insisted on switching the TV off at half eight.

Role reversal

You have to give that lot down the road some credit – they had one win in nine and people were counting them out and all of a sudden they have won six on the spin.

Ipswich this season remind me of Norwich City under Paul Lambert. It’s relentless intensity. They're so fit, they keep going to the last second, the crowd are right behind them. They don't get downhearted if they concede because they know they'll score goals.

The only thing that will cost them is they might concede too many goals. That's the only thing. Some people will say it doesn’t matter if they score plenty, and I get that, but there will come a stage in the season when those chances won't go in.

But at the minute I would not count them out going top two.

Kieran McKenna (Image: PA Images)

Right now, it’s a case of roles reversed where for the first time in a long time they're flying, Kieran McKenna's come in and he's united the whole club to be fair and there's a real feelgood factor about the place. Not that there isn't here at Norwich, but I think it doesn't take a lot for certain supporters to vent their frustration and disappointment because of what they've had for the last nine or 10 years.

Which brings me to Kenny McLean’s reaction to some moans and groans last weekend.

Kenny reacted to some moans and groans - I’ve had the same and sometimes you just get sick to death of it. You're only human and sometimes it's hard not to react.

People think they've paid their money, so they're entitled to say what they want when it comes to a 90-minute football game and I understand that. Whether it's right or wrong, it's not for me to say. But then I do think it’s ok, if Kenny thought they were wrong in the way they were shouting or were acting then I do think he's got every right to have his opinion.