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Wednesday to Saturday is a routine I’m more comfortable with, and it’s the first time since before Christmas that we’ve had that. It’s also the first time in ages that we’ve played a fixture before City. They always seem to be a game or two ahead and with the points on the board. No question that I’d rather be in that situation. Anyway, Norwich come to town for the first of two fixtures against us at Anfield within a fortnight, the other being the FA Cup tie. With that said: Substance. Yer ma. Luck. Vim. Effervescence. Skill. Tactical nous. Effort. Ruthlessness. I don’t ask for much. Our last home game against this lot was on the opening day of the season in 2019/20. It was a Friday night game and the only blemish was Alisson suffering a calf injury in innocuous fashion during the first half. It meant we would be using Adrian for the next couple of months. A Grant Hanley own goal, a header from a corner from Virg, some opportunism and skill in the box from Mo, and Div heading in front a great Trent pass meant that we were 4-0 to the good at half time. Though we conceded to Pukki in the second half, we ran out comfortable 4-1 winners. Even more comprehensive was the 6-0 hiding we dished out to the Canaries in February 1979. This was the season where we collected a record points haul for a 42-game season, and barely conceded any. Rock solid defensively, able to both play and handle the rough stuff in midfield, Kenny imperious in attack and the poacher’s instincts of both Johnson and Fairclough meant that nobody could live with us. Kenny and Johnno bagged a brace apiece with the two Kennedys (the ones that hadn’t been shot, though Sir Bob often questioned that they'd got the wrong one when referring to Barney Rubble!) grabbing a goal each. Just complete and utter dominance. Here's the Guardian's match report. February 1979’s big box office smash was director Michael Cimino’s Oscar-grabbing heavyweight The Deer Hunter. Another piece of cinematic brilliance from a decade full of cinematic brilliance. De Niro, Streep and Walken were all on top form, as was the late great John Cazale in his last film before his death. That fella’s legacy is a movie career where every film is a work of art. The aforementioned The Deer Hunter notwithstanding, Cazale also played a significant role in The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II and Dog Day Afternoon. Has any other actor had such a run of films all at elite level? The Deer Hunter is the tale of a group of small-town steel workers who used to spend weekends going hunting, before being enlisted to fight in the Vietnam War. Stunning cinematography aids the performances of the cast alongside a great script, and not forgetting a memorable score topped by John Williams’ (not the film composer) beautiful acoustic rendition of Stanley Myers’ ‘Cavatina’. Seriously, watch this film. Cimino never bettered it and even managed to bankrupt a studio (United Artists) following the failure of his next film, Heaven’s Gate. Dean Smith has managed to improve Norwich’s performances and resultssince taking charge earlier in the season. Under Daniel Farke, they were losing every week and were certainties to finish bottom. It was even being suggested that they could match or beat Derby’s record for the worst ever Premier League season. They are not out of the woods by any means, but they are in a position where if another side hits the skids and starts to tumble down the table, a bit of luck might enable them to rescue themselves. That bit of luck will not be this weekend. As long as we approach the game with the correct application and mentality, we have the tools to do what we generally do to Norwich. We also have another Luis who could torture them like the last one did. Do all the right things and get the job done.

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.