After a tumultuous season, base camp has at last been reached by Norwich City.

Given the cost and quality of a squad containing 11 full internationals a play-off place was really the minimum requirement, notwithstanding the injury to Josh Sargent, but now the question is whether David Wagner can steer them through the knockout stage and all the way to Wembley and beyond.

Last Saturday’s game was anti-climactic to say the very least, with no obvious attempt  on the part of City to hold onto fifth place, as the Canaries showed little desire to do anything other than avoid a heavy defeat.

The problem is that when a team set out to play in second gear and with no ambition other than to keep the ball, even if there are no plans to do anything much with it, it is very hard to change the tempo once the opposition score.

City’s first-half showing was woeful, with no cohesion and some awful passing, but after half-time oversized shoes and red noses wouldn’t have been out of place as players fell over, mis-controlled the ball or hacked it into touch under no pressure whatsoever.

Consequently, Wagner’s post-match comment to the effect that nobody cared about the performance because there were no injuries and the play-off place was secured, was ill considered when 2,000 fans had paid out the best part of £100 or more on tickets, transport, food and drink in order to see their team phone in an embarrassing performance.

However, the end result is what we all wanted, to be in with a chance to get back to the Premier League, and everyone will be behind Wagner and the team tomorrow.

I hope that he has learnt from the home league defeat to Leeds in which City got at them in the first half and took a deserved 2-0 lead, only to sit back after half-time and end up losing the game.

Leeds can be vulnerable defensively, as QPR recently discovered, but they have great speed and quality in attack, so any attempt to simply contain them is likely to be unsuccessful.

However, they are coming off an awful end to the season, which saw them blow automatic promotion, and they will be low on confidence, so it’s important that they aren’t allowed to control possession and play themselves back into form, which is why it’s so frustrating that any remaining momentum City had was so freely sacrificed at Birmingham.

Throughout the season City have shown that when they play positively they are more than a match for anyone, but that when they show opponents too much respect they don’t have the defensive resilience to keep the top sides out.

What is to City’s advantage is the fact that, unlike Daniel Farke, Wagner has experience of steering a side to promotion via the play-offs, having masterminded Huddersfield’s success in 2016/17.

However, it’s slightly worrying that in a total of 330 minutes of play-off football the Terriers' only goal was the equalising own goal by Sheffield Wednesday’s Tom Lees late in the second leg, with the semi-final and final won in penalty shootouts after extra-time.

One of the consistent criticisms of Wagner throughout his tenure has been a tendency towards negativity in pressure situations, which partly explains City’s poor away record when compared to other teams in the upper reaches of the table.

It seems imperative that City take a lead into the second leg given that record, so I think that most fans would hope to see them on the front foot from the start tomorrow but without being reckless.

Now that we are now in knockout territory I would hate to see City attempt to grind their way to the final only to fall short, so hopefully Wagner will put his faith in his exciting attacking players and let them off the leash.