So Norwich City’s players jetted out to Spain for a few days of fair weather training after the defeat at the hands of Stoke City last Saturday.

It wasn’t the prettiest of games but that is often the way at the Britannia with the way the home side play. It was a game of very few chances and when Matthew Etherington scored with only 18 minutes left it was always going to be tough for the Canaries to grab an equaliser.

Having lost two consecutive matches and with nine games to come in March and April, now is a good time to take the lads away and recharge the batteries for the last few weeks of what’s been a fantastic season – they’ve earned it so far. It will do them the world of good to get away from the Colney training ground as it can get quite monotonous turning up to the same place each day.

I was taken away for a mid-season break on a couple of occasions in my career with Huddersfield and then Wolves. We went to Spain on both trips and although we did work hard while we were there we did play quite hard too!

I think if you go away like the lads have done the one thing you have to do when you get back is perform to a high standard. On our return to Wolverhampton back in 1996 we faced Crystal Palace at home and received a 3-0 beating, and you can imagine the stick we took after that defeat with people accusing us of playing too hard while over in La Manga. I’m certain this won’t be the case with Paul Lambert’s side.

On Sunday it’s Wigan Athletic at Carrow Road and a game that’s live on Sky Sports 1. I’m really looking forward to this game as I’ll be working for Radio Norfolk. It’s a great opportunity for the lads to bounce back from defeat to Stoke.

I was at the DW Stadium last Saturday to witness Swansea’s 2-0 victory there and I thought the Wigan players were extremely poor, letting their manager, Roberto Martinez, pictured, down in the process. There was seemingly a lack of effort, belief, enthusiasm, and ideas emerging from the players on the day.

Roberto is a talented young manager and a good man. I got to know him quite well when he was in charge of the Swans – where he did a fine job – and he was badly let down on Saturday by his players. They have a couple of players that need looking after in Victor Mosses and Hugo Rodallega, but apart from those two they’re a very poor side whose position in the league is justified. They have won only four games all season and I can’t see anything but a Norwich victory.

We had another managerial casualty last Sunday when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked by Chelsea billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. It was the eighth time the ruthless Russian had wielded the axe and having spent a small fortune to get AVB here from Porto at the start of the season he will have to dig deep into his pockets to get rid of him.

I think it was a very harsh decision as you have to give a manager more than seven months to make his own mark on the team and its playing style. So the managerial roundabout starts again and I’m sure all you Yellow Army faithful don’t want any club to come knocking on Delia’s door asking for permission to talk to Paul Lambert, a sure candidate for manager of the year.