Any hopes of a late surge towards the play-off places were almost certainly put to bed by Wednesday night’s defeat at Southampton.
The 1-0 loss leaves the Canaries nine points adrift of the Saints in sixth – as well as Wrexham in seventh – with just eight games left to play.
In truth, it’s nothing short of a miracle that we are even talking about the prospect of the play-offs at this stage of the season. Given the run of form we have been on under Philippe Clement, it’s almost easy to forget what a dire state we found ourselves in when the Belgian arrived back in November.
Norwich City columnist Edward Seaman
It’s no exaggeration to say we were hurtling towards League One at a terrifying rate of knots.
The man at the helm of the revival, Mr Clement, deserves the world of credit.
He picked the club up from a real low ebb, breathing desperately needed life into everyone at Carrow Road.
And while a top six finish might be a stretch too far this campaign, there’s every reason to feel optimistic as we head towards next season.
Because not only has Clement achieved incredible things, he has done so with such a threadbare squad available.
By my reckoning, 15 players missed the trip to the south coast on Wednesday night, the vast majority of whom would make the matchday squad, if not the starting 11.
As we head into the international break following this weekend’s visit to Charlton, the hope is we can get several of those absentees back fit for the run-in.
It will be great to see the likes of Mohamed Toure and Oscar Schwartau, as well as Ruairi McConville and Ben Chrisene, back in contention as we look to finish the season strongly. Because even if the play-offs are gone, there is great merit in finishing as high up the table as possible as we build towards next season – and hopefully a more concerted promotion push.
Under the leadership of Clement, that certainly feels possible.