Paddy Davitt delivers his Leicester verdict after Norwich City’s Championship defeat.

1. Containment policy

Defeat for David Wagner and his Norwich City side in the Spring sunshine. A result that revived Leicester City’s own bid for automatic Championship promotion. As well as offering a sliver of extra encouragement to those play-off rivals chasing the Canaries. Not to mention perhaps heightening the importance of a derby duel in the coming days.

A game of strange ebbs and flows. Gabby Sara slotted yet another Norwich City goal from a slick set piece to rock the Foxes.

A team who had lost the previous two at home in the league, and came into this game outside the top two on the back of one league win in six.

By the time Stephy Mavididi had skipped over Jack Stacey’s challenge to bend Leicester in front, the visitors had spent almost the entirety of the 40 minutes of match action from Sara’s opener in retreat.

It was passive, it was containment and ultimately it proved fruitless. It was an honest post-match assessment from Wagner, who readily admitted in possession his side were well below-par.

The German may well also point to the individual quality in the home ranks, and the importance of fit-again midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and the creative urges of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as key factors in such a tilt in the balance of power.

But it took Mavididi’s strike for any semblance of a Norwich attacking threat to return. Before Jamie Vardy sealed a routine home win in stoppage time.

To underline the point it was Norwich's smallest sample of possession in the league since the hard-fought away win at Hull City in January. If you excuse the recent under-manned Middlesbrough defeat, following Borja Sainz’s first half red card.

Wagner labelled Leicester the biggest test of the season in the build up. In that context, he will hardly lose any sleep over an away loss to a side he tipped for a top flight return prior to kick-off. City will remain in the play-off spots whatever happens during the rest of Easter Monday. 

He will want much more of the aggressive, front-foot mentality down the stretch that had characterised Norwich’s upturn.

2. SOS. Send on Shane

When Wagner indicated caution was the watchword with his Republic of Ireland international, after a return from a calf injury in a late cameo against Plymouth, he clearly did not envisage Duffy entering the frayfter within 10 minutes.

Jacob Sorensen dropped to the ground following an early Foxes’ corner clutching the back of his right leg, and centre back partner Ben Gibson immediately signalled to the bench the Dane’s race was run.

That brought the vastly-experienced Duffy into the equation for his first significant outing in green and yellow since featuring against Coventry City in late-February.

Ipswich, and the potentially muscular presence of Kieffer Moore this coming weekend at Carrow Road, may have been more uppermost in Wagner’s thoughts.

But it was needs must. We await the now customary longer range forecast on Sorensen’s possible absence. With Grant Hanley seemingly not in the plans until the final throes of this Championship season Duffy is now a precious commodity.

There were some inevitable signs of rust, when he put Marcelino Nunez and Angus Gunn in trouble with heavy touches after his introduction, but the 32-year-old’s aerial presence was vital with Leicester dominating possession and territory, and the visitors too often retreating to the edge of their own penalty box to head away balls.

Perhaps Duffy’s emergency shift in a defensive rearguard action for long spells will prove money in the bank for Ipswich and beyond.

3. Fab Four

They can work out between themselves who is playing which instrument but the gear change in Norwich’s attacking threat level since Wagner opted to shift Sara to the right of a more advanced role, with Sainz the opposite side of Josh Sargent and Ashley Barnes, is impressive. 

Wagner permed the quartet together, with Nunez in alongside Kenny McLean behind them, for the 5-0 rout of Rotherham early last month. Since then, City brushed aside Stoke, showed their resilience to overcome plucky Plymouth and, albeit in defeat to the Foxes, saw Sara notch his 22nd goal contribution of a remarkable Championship season.

Such has been the seamless stitching it feels like a much longer body of work. When you consider Jon Rowe can be added to the mix when he returns from his hamstring injury this month you understand why Wagner and his coaches must feel they are onto something.

You have a little bit of everything you need in Championship grade. The power and streetwise nous of the experienced Barnes. The athleticism and goalscoring prowess of Sargent and in Sara and Sainz two of the most creative influences in the second tier.

Sara’s personal reel of goals and assists is a testament to his consistency since the first ball was kicked back in August against Hull City.

Sainz’s trajectory has been flatter and interspersed with injury or the odd disciplinary blemish.

If Wagner can retain a more solid defensive base as the tension and the pressure intensify, then in his ‘Fab Four’ he has the personnel to hit the high notes.

4. Batten down the hatches

Ipswich Town at Carrow Road. Does it come any bigger for the Yellow Army? But beyond tribal rivalries and bragging rights surely the Blues’ cross-border visit this coming weekend is the biggest tussle between the neighbours since those Championship play-off skirmishes back in 2015.

Give or take 13 days it will be almost 15 years since Town got one over on the Canaries.

Too many highlights to condense into a few sentences. The laughing Grant Holt, the soaring Timm Klose, the ruthless Rowe and so on. Ipswich must have felt ahead of the clubs Portman Road meeting earlier this season the plates had decisively shifted, and the force was with Town. Rowe and Norwich had other ideas.

Ahead of the return the Canaries look a markedly better side in much better form. Even allowing for a lacklustre Leicester offering.

Ipswich, to be truthful, have held their nerve impressively, and went into the day top of the standings, ahead of a late Monday afternoon collision with Russell Martin’s Southampton.

The build up in the coming days on both sides of the border will merely underscore a monumental occasion lies in store. One for cool heads on the pitch, and throaty support off it.

Will it be decisive for either club’s promotion ambitions? Given the number of points and games ahead, clearly not. But it is not just about points at this stage, it is the psychological shifts at the climax of a campaign that could push City over the line.

Remember that thumping Portman Road away win back in the Paul Lambert era, when his vintage closed in on the Premier League?

Let the countdown begin.