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And so we move onto the League Cup 3rd Round. I can't call it by it's sponsorship name, firstly because I've never bought the stuff, and second because it's been almost exclusively in the hands of an oil state since being so named. I'm not overly keen on all these energy drinks, and in fact I had no idea what the brand was until maybe a year or so after they'd been sponsoring the competition. Whatever happened to all those shit-to-average UK-based companies from the TV rental, catalogue shopping or shite-to-bang-average beer sectors that used to sponsor this thing? Anyway: Work-rate. Heart. Effervescence. Respect. Exuberance. Accuracy. Robustness. Energy (drink). Youthfulness. Obstinacy. Urgency. I don't ask for much. This is a fixture that has been played in this competition before. In December 1979 to be exact. It wasn't a competition we took especially seriously back then, but these sides met in the 5th Round at Carrow Road. We'd been finalists two years earlier, but generally the competition, much like in recent times, was treated as an afterthought by a club that had much bigger fish to fry. I can't actually find a clip of this one on Youtube (not even a photo on Google), but we won 3-1 thanks to a brace from David Johnson and a goal from Kenny; Kevin Reeves scored the solitary goal for the Canaries that night. We'd go on to face Forest again in the semis, and again they came out on top. At the time, they were at their very best in two-legged cup ties, having won this competition two years in a row and going on to lose the final this season, but to compensate they would also go on to retain the European Cup against King Kev's Hamburg in Madrid. The biggest box office draw in early December 1979 was the big-screen version of Gene Roddenberry's 1960s TV sci-fi classic Star Trek. The movie, subtitled The Motion Picture, saw the old cast reunited after a decade. Kirk and Spock have remained an iconic duo, with the friendship and cameraderie between the human former USS Enterprise captain and now Admiral at Starfleet, and the half-Vulcan and always logical sidekick always at the forefront of the story. It's an alright film as sci-fi goes, but it's not a patch on the sequel which for me remains the movie franchise's finest hour. For one thing, the sequel has a memorable villain in Khan Noonan Singh. Like Star Wars, Star Trek still has a massive and fanatical fanbase. My brother is one of them, although that's based on subsequent TV series' rather than the films. Back in the real world, I'd expect Jurgen to rest quite a few of our players, and give run-outs to those who need a bit of game time. So the likes of Keeva in goal, Neco at right back, Big Nat in defence, Curtis in midfield and an attack of the young Kaide Gordon, Big Div and Taki should all expect to see some action. Much as I'd like to see us make more progress in the domestic cups, I can also see why some at the club still see the likes of the League Cup as more of a chance to use squad players than a cup to go and win. Norwich might not want to go too strong in this one because they are faltering in the league at the minute, but Jurgen should just ask our players to give it all they've got and see what happens. We've had players make a name for themselves in this competition and go on to establish themselves in the first team.