Paddy Davitt delivers his Watford verdict after Norwich City’s first Championship home win under Johannes Hoff Thorup.

1. One team in yellow

The Norwich fans basked in the warm glow of watching a first league victory on home soil under their Danish head coach as they taunted Watford's away support as they headed for the exits.

Watford had their moments, and for a spell after a first half equaliser, and again at 3-1 behind, threatened to make this another uncomfortable finale, but Norwich were full value and the final margin of the win did not flatter Thorup’s squad.

City were vibrant, full of energy and razor-sharp when they needed to be in extending an unbeaten Carrow Road home run to 18 league games. That is a record Throup inherited, and has added to against the likes of Blackburn, Sheffield United and now the Hornets.

When pressed on Friday about the expectation, maybe even the burden of that long unbroken spell, Thorup accentuated the positive and spoke about why he was in the business of delivering these uplifting moments for players and supporters.

But it was the actions of his players rather than his words that will bring fans on this journey. The ovation at full-time was warm and effusive. This is a brand of football most can surely rally behind.

It remains a work in progress, and Thorup will have to navigate plenty more challenges on the way. But if City are, by his own admission, in 'catch up' mode after a points tally from the first five league games he felt was below par, more displays of this ilk will see them move through the gears, and up the Championship standings.

2. Masterful McLean

Thorup appears a fully-fledged member of ‘why use 10 words when you can use five’ school of head coaching. His pre and post-match dissections since he arrived from Denmark are to the point and, on occasion, brutally honest.

After beating Coventry for an opening Championship win of his tenure, he delivered an unvarnished assessment of why Ante Crnac and Amankwah Forson were hooked at the interval.

It might have got lost in the haze of an uplifting win but in that same post-match touchpoint at the CBS Thorup was also asked about Kenny McLean’s impact since his arrival.

To paraphrase, his head coach indicated he had not been entirely happy with all the Scot’s displays while hailing his desire to embrace Thorup’s methods, and demonstrating a healthy desire to strive for constant self-improvement.

The Dane will not need to be asked for his assessment of McLean’s shift against the Hornets. Two assists and the trigger pass to release Callum Doyle for Norwich’s third early in the second half. There was another pinpoint threaded ball that set Josh Sargent away in the 73rd minute which the US international pulled wide.

More often than not in his City career, McLean’s effectiveness has been less showy and more appreciated by team mates and close coaching confidantes. Daniel Farke called him ‘indispensable’ during a failed Premier League tilt.

McLean himself nailed his colours to the mast in the summer when the speculation went into overdrive about a move to Rangers. He wanted to be in Norfolk and on this evidence he will remain at the heart of the City midfield under Thorup.

3. Vamos, José

When Norwich City’s towering new centre back was getting the grand Colney tour in May, ahead of sealing his move from Levski Sofia, you would have got long odds on his first league start for the Canaries only arriving a week or so before October.

Particularly when he was a key figure in Panama’s run to an historic Copa America knock out stage during the intervening period.

But the 23-year-old finally made his bow alongside the experienced Shane Duffy at a sun-kissed Carrow Road.

It was a full league debut that showcased his athletic ability, his composure on the ball and, in truth, one or two examples that showed he will need the same patience and understanding as the like of Crnac, Oscar Schwartau, Forson et al.

The way he levered Daniel Jebbison off the ball was the first evidence of why City’s recruitment team targeted him. Thorup wants defenders comfortable operating in wide spaces and in direct duels.

He was also a threat in the opposition penalty box, attacking Marcelino Nunez set pieces, and willing to burst forward and spark attacking motions. There was also a brave if painful-looking block on Ryan Porteous that brought slaps on the back from Duffy in the 66th minute.

But he was fooled too easily by Rocco Vata in the phase of play that brought Watford a first half leveller, with a sharp turn that left Cordoba needing a lottery ticket to get back into Carrow Road.

Yet there were ample entries on the positive side of the ledger to suggest, with more minutes and more exposure to Championship attackers, Cordoba looks the real deal.  

4. Dazzling Doyle

Something of a surprise perhaps sprung by Thorup in a full back shuffle that saw both Jack Stacey and Ben Chrisene demoted. But it was the major uplift it brought that would have pleased the Dane.

Kellen Fisher offered less attacking adventure than Stacey on his first league start since December 2023, but in that more inverted role released Doyle to illustrate once again what an astute piece of recruitment that was, and why patience was the order of the day before Manchester City sanctioned his release on a season long loan.

Doyle’s work is stamped through with quality and we now know he possesses a thunderous shot alongside the precision-guided possession and defensive combativeness.

When McLean shovelled the ball into midfield Doyle still had plenty of work to do but shrugged off his marker and unleashed a rising shot that Daniel Bachmann got his hands to but was beaten by the sheer power and swerving trajectory.

It was a majestic strike, and in that first 25 minutes of the game, Doyle was the heartbeat and the key to Norwich’s control and front-footed endeavour. It was also his burst and perfectly-weighted cutback for Nunez to slot a third early in the second half.

Doyle might have enjoyed a huge slice of fortune in the 33rd minute when Giorgi Chakvetadze’s corner squirmed through his legs on his own line and clipped a post before Jebbison blazed over.

But maybe the young Mancunian is able to write his own scripts on the early evidence of a third consecutive Championship loan posting.