John Smith’s PNE fans’ panel verdict: Lacklustre North End need some fight instilled in them

The programme’s opening credits always rolled to some jolly, psychedelic disco-type music with the producer describing the star prizes on offer to the contestants.

There was no doubt that our fans would have been doing some psychedelic disco-type dancing had Daniel Jebbison’s early lobbed effort not fallen just wide of the post.

This was about as good as it got for the travelling faithful when, after a bright start, we fell behind in the 17th minute to the home side’s first serious attack.

Daniel Iversen could only push out a shot into the path of the grateful Ali Ahmed, who beat Odel Offiah to the ball before calmly stroking it into the net.

The goal knocked most of the earlier zip out of the side and, from this moment on, I thought we were always fighting an uphill battle.

I felt we needed to get to half-time without conceding another goal, which would have kept us in the game and given us a chance during the interval to regroup.

As with other games this season, our own mistakes led to our downfall.

Six minutes before the break, we conceded a soft free-kick on the edge of the area from which Kenny McLean curled the ball over a motionless wall and into the top corner.

In the second half, the game was so pedestrian at times that it had the feeling of a pre-season friendly.

We huffed and puffed but, with the home side’s players going down like skittles, it was hard for us to find any rhythm in a half also heavily punctuated by substitutions.

It came as no surprise to me when the game petered out with Norwich able to keep their two-goal advantage intact.

The result confirmed what I knew anyway, that – unlike the winning contestant in Sale of the Century who got to choose one of the four grand prizes on offer – there was now no chance of an EFL play-off place.

It also meant that we slipped down a further three places to 17th in the league table, something unthinkable to most fans a few weeks ago.

If we do not win soon, we will be nervously looking over our shoulders at the teams currently occupying the relegation spots who are slowly beginning to creep up on us.

Manager Paul Heckingbottom urgently needs to instil some fight into this lacklustre team who are playing like a boxer who is out on his feet.

The afternoon’s only bright spot, apart from the spring sun, was a performance full of youthful energy from Andy Moran, who was making his first start after signing in what has turned out to be a disastrous January transfer window.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said that the beauty of sport is that sometimes you laugh and sometimes you cry.

Well, after my experiences in recent weeks, I am doing the latter and – if this carries on – I will need some extra tissues before long.