Spud Thornhill: Why Norwich boss Dean Smith reminds me of Santa

Or if it is anything like it was at Carrow Road last Saturday evening, then perhaps not to the one standing on the side of the pitch in front of the home dugout.

Before the game, I was saying how I still believed in everything yellow and green and how things were going to change and possibly the World Cup break will have done us good. I stuck by Dean Smith when others were didn't.

Some people will call me a happy clapper, but I am just a positive person who wants to believe in my football team, that everything is going to come true. I'd just rather be positive in life than negative.

With that in mind, I’m like that young lad at school who is probably the last person still believing in Father Christmas. There’s always one young kid who doesn’t want to believe what his school mates tell him about Santa. Just like me, who, for many months, has not wanted to hear negative comments about how Dean Smith is not the man to lead us forward.

Maybe tomorrow that young kid may finally have his doubts in Father Christmas confirmed. Just like me last Saturday evening when I finally had my doubts in Dean Smith being the man to lead us back to the Premier League.

People were calling for Smith to go by the end of last season, which I understood at times when considering the complete white flag performances we put in.

I defended him so much by saying we should give the man a chance, it will be so much different in the Championship, he knows this league well and we will control the majority of games. We will be successful.

He deserved his chance in the Championship, especially after the way he turned a struggling Aston Villa side around when he took over at the end of October 2018 taking them to the play-offs and winning it in just six short months - including a run of 10 consecutive wins from March onwards.

I have been to every home game, plus a few away games, this season and I have walked away from the ground with either family and friends every game and I have defended Smith and the players so much when others have complained.

We are now at the halfway point of the season and have played every single team this season - I may have been bit blinkered and I got it all wrong.

The only game I think we have honestly controlled was Coventry, back in September. Even then we tried our best to let them back into the game. After the win against Bristol City on September 14, which was our sixth in succession, we have won four games fro the last 14.

Former Norwich City boss Chris Hughton (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

The amount of anger amongst fans at the moment has not been seen since the Chris Hughton season of 2013/14. I see so many similarities with the Hughton reign when we had been spoilt under Paul Lambert. Us fans are just frustrated with Smith - we may have been spoilt under Daniel Farke.

With Smith showing signs of frustration I can only see this going one way. It can’t carry on. I’m desperate for it to work, but it doesn’t look like it will and if we don’t act we could follow a club like West Bromwich Albion, who stuck by Steve Bruce too long before they acted.

There may be some fans who will want us to lose on Boxing Day - as we know, the current regime have acted in the past when we’ve won. So let’s hope we can win.

Failure against Luton and definitely against Reading and the club will be a lot busier than all the shops in the city put together for the Christmas sales.

This year has been very hard watching Norwich City - let’s hope 2023 will be better.

Merry Christmas.