Borja Sainz’s brace against Middlesbrough has had me racking my brains trying to think of two better goals in a game from an individual.
The first one is a hell of a strike. It's gone past the keeper before he has seen it. The angle of the second and the technique and the power he gets to it – the keeper gets his fingertips to it but it was magnificent.
It had a lot of pace - both strikes the pace and the accuracy, especially with the second one, has beaten the keeper.
That’s 10 goals in 12 games now and he’s not even a centre forward. He plays all over, he gets a bit of a free role and what I like as well is something you don't get much – he’s a grafter, he does his work defensively.
People have compared him to Darren Huckerby and you can see why - he's never as quick as Hucks. You could put an engine on his back and he'd never be as quick as Hucks. But there are similarities - they're both direct, they both score goals, they both love running at defenders.
Probably the difference is when we were defending, Hucks never got past the halfway line. We didn’t mind that because we knew what he’d give us going forward. We said ‘keep your energy until we give you the ball and you go and do the rest’.
But Sainz gets back. Of course, we had Adam Drury, probably the best left back in the league. Adam, one on one, defensively against anybody, you fancy him to not get beat. So you didn’t mind Hucks being lazy when you've got Adam as your left back.
Sainz is only a young boy at 23 years old - I know it's early days and he hasn't achieved anything near at the minute of what Emi Buendia did, but at the minute his price is absolutely rocketing up.
What if he gets 15 goals by the end of this year? And he’s got longevity, he is starting his career really. It’s a bit like Jonathan Rowe last season, he burst on the scene, scored 10 league goals by the end of the year.
I've seen a lot of teams in the Championship, I've seen most of the sides and I think he's the best player in the Championship, in the first three months we've had. And it's not just the goals that he's scored, though of course that helps his case massively, but his general performance.
He's a crowd pleaser - goalscorers are. And he does all the right things, he pats the badge, he gets involved with the crowd. Supporters love that. He's passionate, which you love about him. He’s got that petulant side of him under control, which is good.
By the way, it was one hell of a game on Sunday. I would have actually gone down to Carrow Road but my family were up from Kent and I don't see like the grandchildren that often. So we all had Sunday dinner altogether, but watch the game.
Both are really good attacking sides. Two teams that want to score goals. Two teams that are capable of scoring a hatful of goals.
I'm not a goalkeeping expert, but if I'm in that team, I'm disappointed with my goalkeeper. And it happened to Seny Dieng as well with the equaliser from young Kellen Fisher. He's put a hopeful ball in trying to find Josh Sargent on the back post and Dieng's got done on his near post.
The third goal, where Long’s parried it out - I think he's got to parry it out of danger. It’s picky, I get that and I don't want to be like a broken record, but it's not good enough.
But to be fair to him, it was a massive moment in the game, really. That goes in and it’s 4-1 and Goodnight Vienna. Your home record has gone just before it gets to that year mark. And as soon as he saved that pen with 22, 23 minutes to go, I looked at the kids and said ‘Norwich will get something now’. It was a massive momentum shift because 4-1 and it is game over.
You have got to give the goalkeeper credit, he's guessed the right way and he's made himself a hero at the end of the day – even when Borja Sainz scores a pair of worldies.
Experience counts
At 3-1 down at home it would have been easy, not to throw the towel in, but to think it's game over. But you've got older lads in there – Kenny McLean, Shane Duffy and Josh Sargent to a degree, even though he's not as old as the other two.
I think McLean is your heartbeat, he's been here six years or so now, he bleeds yellow and green. He's captain for a reason, he's a leader, he's vocal on the pitch.
He’s got a great left foot - I don't think he gets the credit he deserves for his ability on the ball, not just his hard work off the ball when they’re out of possession, but I think his leadership qualities are maybe what we haven't got when he's not in the team and it's a big hole to miss as he serves out his suspension.
I thought he was unlucky to see red. Yes, he was a little bit late, but I've seen it more than once - it was a bit high, I get that, but I don't think there was too much contact. The lad got up straight away. It was just a little bit late, it happens. I think a yellow card would have would have been the right decision.
You’ve got Anis Ben Slimane, and Emiliano Marcondes, who looked to do well by the way, especially first half when he looked good. There's no excuse for not having legs in that midfield, but they have lost a player with hundreds of games worth of experience.
If you’re under the cosh, under pressure, that's when you need the likes of McLean, just to calm things down, slow things down a little bit, waste a little bit of time maybe.
The enthusiasm that the younger players have - sometimes you don't need that enthusiasm.
Plus, Jose Cordoba looks as if he's got an old head on young shoulders, which I think you do need in that position, so there are enough players there to step up. Other players now need to step up and take responsibility of their leadership in that dressing room and in that starting XI.
Bluebirds view
I've seen this weekend's opponents Cardiff a lot this season. They had one point from their opening seven Championship games, but things have taken a turn for the better since they parted company with Erol Bulut and replaced him with Omer Riza.
It was hard work watching Cardiff – and I actually thought they had a decent window in the summer.
But they were absolutely awful. It stemmed from last season when they lost six of their last nine games. They lost their last home game 4-1 to Middlesbrough and on the final day were beaten 5-2 at Rotherham, who finished bottom. So the writing was on the wall.
The football was so dour, defensive, even at home. Before the win against Millwall they’d lost six of their last seven games at the Cardiff City Stadium. Home fans were getting frustrated at a lack of goals, a lack of attacking quality. And defensively they were conceding goals for fun – 5-0 at Burnley, 4-1 at Hull in Riza’s first game.
But to be fair, that Hull game wasn’t a 4-1 game - they looked better going forward.
They've now won their last three at home, they beat Millwall 1-0, which was a big win for them in his first home game. Then they beat Portsmouth 5-0 - the first time since February 2017 they've scored five goals in a league game, when Neil Warnock was the manager.
And then they beat Plymouth 2-0. So they’ve won three consecutive home games and they've kept clean sheets in all three. They’ve had four clean sheets in their last five - they'd kept four in their previous 21 leagues.
They are much more of a threat going forward. He’s brought back the likes of Callum Robinson, who should have scored two at West Brom on Saturday.
Robinson has four in his last five appearances for Cardiff.
Rubin Colwill has one in the league, two in the League Cup - he's a player. He's six-foot two, he's got great ability on the ball – he won’t be there long.
What the manager has done is change personnel. There's more attacking players playing in the team now than there was.
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