Will Jennings on Norwich boss Wagner and teen star Kellen Fisher

Blackburn at home, Sky television cameras and a Norwich City boss virtually everyone agrees should no longer be patrolling the Carrow Road touchline.

So much has been said, written and posted about David Wagner over the last five days and as one of the 1,100 fans who made the long trip up to Sunderland last weekend, it’s difficult to disagree with any of the scathing assessments.

Wagner’s City are in a state of total Championship freefall, engulfed in a run of seven defeats in nine and a situation so obvious to all of us the German is unable to turn around.

I genuinely felt a degree of sympathy watching Wagner's lonely trudge around his Stadium of Light technical area on Saturday, cutting an increasingly isolated figure and when interviewed by Chris Goreham post-match, quite simply sounding like one too.

But, of course, the issues run deeper than simply sacking the manager and, as mentioned by many on social media this week, the decision to leave Wagner in post and send him out in front of 25,000 fans baying for his Bonfire Night blood is only exacerbating the current situation – in addition to intensifying anger towards Stuart Webber, the board and Carrow Road powers that be.

We all know what will happen if - or more likely, when - we go a goal down on Sunday lunchtime and for the majority of Wagner's woefully misfiring squad, they've firmly been here before.

But one player probably won't have been and, if anyone is looking for a long-overdue source of positivity this week, there was one performance on Wearside that perhaps got lost in the Canary chaos that followed.

Kellen Fisher was thrust into the heat of Championship battle and delivered an admirable display at one of the division's most daunting grounds, grabbing the assist for Hwang Ui-jo's unlikely opener and more than holding his own against arguably the league's most dangerous winger.

Yes, City still lost 3-1 and yes, Jack Clarke got a similarly impressive assist - as well as scoring from the spot - but Fisher's action-packed performance proved one of the rare bright lights on an otherwise miserable day in the north-east.

This is firmly unfamiliar territory for the former Bromley full-back and I just hope that Fisher, 19, does not let - to be clear, entirely accurate - fan hostility intimidate him or in any way inhibit his development.

It’s likely the NR1 terraces will be a grim place to be on Sunday and while the experienced likes of Kenny McLean, Shane Duffy and Ben Gibson are no strangers to that kind of atmosphere – even the more youthful Jonathan Rowe and Adam Idah were around for the back end of the Dean Smith era – it will be fascinating to see how Fisher handles the inevitable Carrow Road cauldron.

Bizarrely, I first became aware of the baby-faced Bromley youngster prior to his arrival in Norfolk when he was crowned Sportsbeat Young Player of the Year – an award coincidentally sponsored by the company in London I work for – at the Non-League Paper’s National Game Awards.

Kellen Fisher - an award winner in his Bromley days (Image: Sportsbeat)

The image of him receiving his accolade from one of our company directors prompted me to do some research and it rapidly became clear that Fisher, who could genuinely be mistaken for a Key Stage 3 student, was emerging as a red-hot non-league prodigy.

Given the initial impact of the indefatigable Jack Stacey down City's right-hand-side, Fisher has had to bide his time for a maiden Championship start since arriving from the National League club in the summer.

But after impressing - and providing another pinpoint assist - in City's dramatic late win against QPR in the Carabao Cup back in August, he without doubt deserved the opportunity that came his way on Wearside last weekend.

Like most of City's stuttering stars, Stacey has looked sluggish throughout our recent slide and for all his many flaws, it was refreshing to see Wagner give youth a chance in a game that felt so crucial to his future at the Stadium of Light.

And while the City boss may have moved one step closer towards the inevitable – and now long-overdue – Carrow Road exit door, Fisher’s precocious performance provided a rare glimpse of promise and brighter yellow and green future.