Regulars of givemefootball may have noted during the Nationwide season just ended that when I previewed weekend games I suggested heavily that Norwich's place in the leading group of the table owed much to an incredible home record. And when you consider they won 18 games at Carrow Road, losing just two - the best record in the entire Nationwide League - I think I emphasised that with some justification.
But I think there are other reasons why they have not only earned automatic promotion, but the respect of football in general.
A team doesn't win promotion, let alone the title, if it isn't a good team, that's the first thing, and there's absolutely no doubt Norwich City are a good team. Only Ipswich scored more home goals in the division and only West Brom conceded less. But it was also the quality of Norwich's football that earned them the right to mix with the elite next season.
I must confess that apart from television, the only time I saw Norwich live was in their final game at Crewe by which time they had not only clinched automatic promotion but also the championship, which is why I was so impressed by the way they played at Gresty Road. Nothing to play for? Not a bit of it.
With more than 2,000 travelling supporters bedecked in ridiculous green and yellow wigs (and I also saw Elvis, honestly) shouting them on the Canaries took Crewe apart with some quality football and it was that attitude allied to effort and hard work, by the team, that impressed me.
There are no stars at Carrow Road, none except the lady in charge, Delia Smith. At a time when no-one else was interested she and her husband put their money quietly and without fuss into Norwich City. That was eight years ago when the club, out in the sticks, was, with all due respect, out in the sticks and as far removed from the Premiership as you could get.
Delia got the club back on its feet and with the right ingredients, good housekeeping, a well organised unit behind the team, good management and the occasional purchase of good players, she mixed the lot together and came up with the right recipe for promotion.
Taking Nigel Worthington to Carrow Road was probably THE masterstroke. The Ulsterman quietly got on with his job (they do things like that in East Anglia), took under-achieving players already at the club and made them perform to their true potential. He also got the best out of Darren Huckerby who, if he is honest, will admit he has never truly reached his potential.
So much so that Darren was voted the First Division Player of the Season. He also hit 13 goals, some of them crucial, to keep Norwich top despite the attention of West Brom and others.
Huckerby also brings to attention the policy of Nigel Worthington and Norwich City. They didn't throw money at players in the hope of reaching the 'Promised Land'. No, they bought soundly and wisely, and at the right time. After Peter Crouch's loan ended, and helped confirm Norwich as promotion candidates, the club invested heavily, for them, £900,000, in Huckerby and he repaid the manager's faith with pace and goals that frightened the life out of First Division defenders and promises the same to those in the Premiership.
The pessimists will be chorusing the same mantra as they do every time three clubs go up from Division One…'oh, they'll soon be back down'. Maybe so, but Portsmouth didn't. And even if Norwich do come straight back down, and I hope they don't and I have a feeling they will survive, they will adopt the same sensible attitude as West Brom did.
They will not panic buy to stay up, safe in the knowledge that if they do suffer relegation the club is built on a sound enough foundation to do what they have done this year.
