Norwich City Fan View: The coming weeks will show whether impressive Derby victory was a turning point for the team

After three months of sub-standard performances, Monday afternoon saw Norwich City finally put in a performance befitting of what we should expect, as a Nelson Oliveira hat-trick consigned visitors Derby County to a 3-0 defeat. Whilst New Years Eve’s 0-0 draw at Brentford was by no means inspiring, there were some positive to take. In the defeat of Derby, these positives have been significantly built upon and many Norwich fans will be asking the question: have we, at long last, turned a corner?

It is no exaggeration to say that Monday was our best all-round display since the opening weekend victory at Blackburn – aside from perhaps December’s 5-0 victory over Brentford. Even during the early stages of the season, when our form took us to the top of the Championship table, our performances were decidedly cagey and, more often than not, victory flattered us. After such a torrid run of form, it goes without saying that Norwich supporters would have snapped your hand off for such a cagey and undeserved victory against Derby – so to not only to win, but win in style too, was hugely welcome.

Monday’s game saw the long-awaited return of Wes Hoolahan to the starting eleven and, naturally, we looked a far better side for it. TImm Klose, after a month of being benched, retained his place at centre-back after being recalled against Brentford, whilst a return from suspension allowed Jonny Howson to replace African Cup of Nations’ bound Youssouf Mulumbu in midfield. With arguably our three best players involved, the prospect of a positive performance increased ten-fold.

Of course, you can’t talk of City’s best players without mentioning a certain Portuguese: Nelson Oliveira, who has been on a bit of a one-man mission to try and drag the side back into form in recent weeks. Monday was to be his day once again, as he scored his first hat-trick in English football and just the second of his career to secure Norwich victory. The most impressive thing about Oliveira is that, unlike some of the strikers that have come and gone in recent seasons, he creates chances – and scores goals – on his own. If you think of the likes of Gary Hooper and Lewis Grabban, they were hugely dependent on service and, when this service was not provided, they became uselessly ineffective. Oliveira, however, has the priceless ability to score goals out of nothing. He demonstrated this within his two strikes against Aston Villa and Barnsley in December and he showed us once more within his opener against Derby. After some neat dribbling by Jacob Murphy, the ball fell to Oliveira some distance outside of the box, before he wiftly turned and fired home into the bottom right-hand corner of Scott Carson’s net. A goal out of nothing, and a crucial goal that settled the nerves after a shaky start to the game, laying the path for the performance that followed.

Oliveira’s other two demonstrated more of the poacher side to his game, as a neat close-range header was followed by a 12-yard strike after the ball was put onto a plate for him by Timm Klose’s knock-down. Not only can he score goals out of nothing, but he can finish capably when provided, too. It is still early days, but everything I have seen so far suggests that he is the striker that we have been so desperately missing since Grant Holt’s departure.

So, by all means a convincing victory, but have we turned a corner? We will find out in the coming games. We have had numerous false dawns in the past few weeks, the victories over Brentford and Villa ultimately proving nothing more than one-off victories, so it is difficult to get too carried away. By so comfortably dismantling a fellow play-off contender, however, we have most certainly shown that we are more than capable of going on a momentum-building run of form. Whilst, of course, there are no easy games in the Championship, the upcoming fixture list could not be much kinder in terms of giving us an opportunity to follow-up Monday’s victory: after the FA Cup visit of Southampton, we face rock-bottom Rotherham before hosting bottom-half Midland’s pair Birmingham and Wolves. At risk of getting ahead of myself, three victories should not be unrealistic.

Achieve this, Mr Neil, and fans may just begin to believe in you again.