Jimmy Greaves was certainly right - football is a funny old game.

Forty-five matches, 73 points and a place in the Championship top six all but secure - it’s been one hell of a rollercoaster ride for David Wagner and his battling Norwich City players.

So much so that it’s fair to say none of us ever envisaged this scenario materialising, with City miraculously escaping the lower mid-table doldrums from the back end of last year and now emerging as one of the main teams to be heading into the nerve-jangling play-off shoot-out.

Of course, it’s not mathematically done yet and we have all supported this club long enough to know that crazy things can happen on that heart-thumping final day.

But barring a dramatic eight-goal swing between us and Hull in our respective fixtures at Birmingham and Plymouth, City look set to take to the Carrow Road pitch once again for a hotly-anticipated play-off first leg clash a week on Sunday.

Which is where this column, and personal circumstances, got me thinking and if anything, tangibly epitomises the scale of the job Wagner has done in turning this season around.

Months ago, with City beginning to improve but the top six still a firmly unlikely final outcome, I arranged a trip up north for next week’s Premier League Darts in Leeds followed by a first weekend at my girlfriend’s family home in Ripon.

And from my younger brother’s perspective – who has similarly attended the majority of home and away games this season – he took the probable paucity of football in the mid-May period to fulfil a travelling curiosity and fly out to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to explore such a fascinating area of the Central Asian world.

How things now appeared to have backfired.

Of course, there’s far more to life than football and following Norwich City.

And no matter how much you love the club, that should never come at the expense of putting relationships, happiness, work or broader plans in jeopardy.

Norwich Evening News: Play-off fever is about to grip Canaries supporters

But with play-off fever intensifying and another tantalising trip to Wembley within touching distance, it’s impossible to not get carried away and do everything within your power to ensure you’re there and able to follow this most unlikely of potential promotions.

Fortunately, the fact my trip to Yorkshire begins on the Thursday means I can just about get away with an early Sunday morning departure back to Norfolk to watch Wagner’s players gun for a crucial first leg triumph against either – fingers crossed – Russell Martin’s Southampton or Daniel Farke’s Leeds, assuming it’s our arch rivals who beat them to second spot and seal an admittedly impressive automatic promotion.

And it’s not just pipping West Bromwich Albion to fifth and a therefore less menacing-looking semi-final against Southampton that makes that option preferable – the prospect of an 8am train from Leeds to Norwich on the Sunday morning, the only service that would get in on time ahead of the scheduled 12:30pm third vs sixth fixture, surrounded by hundreds of merry Whites fans is far from appealing from a yellow and green perspective.

But in any event, an early trip back is a necessary Norwich City evil at this intoxicating stage of the season so I can catch the climax of this most turbulent of campaigns.

My brother sadly won’t enjoy such flexibility, instead having to source a sports bar in the Kazakh city of Almaty – Mad Murphy’s Irish Pub looks a decent spot, apparently – to watch his similarly beloved Canaries embark on their Wembley-seeking quest.

Whatever happens, this is that thrilling stage of the season where all fans must be magnetised to matches and even if they can’t get there, will do whatever it takes to ensure they are following it from wherever they are in the world.

That pattern continues on the final day at Birmingham this weekend, with the away end sold out in rapid time and where around 3,000 loyal Canaries will watch Wagner’s players bid to get a result, beat the Baggies to fifth and prevent the improbable scenario of Hull gatecrashing our play-off party.

And if that happens, it’s all eyes back on Carrow Road next Sunday for a stirring semi-final clash against the man who captained us to play-off glory on that magical May Monday back in 2015.

Whether you’re lucky enough to be there or not, it’s set to be totally unmissable and I can’t help but keep dreaming about where this most unique, dramatic and increasingly joyous season may end up.

OTBC