A three-letter word beginning with 'B'. As in 'big'.

As in the next fortnight or so in the 2008-2009 history of Norwich City.

Because somewhere in the course of the next five games the Canaries have to finally make the sum of all their various parts add up.

They don't and for the fourth season in a row, nothing but an unrelenting slog towards the finishing line looms; with no higher ambition than 21st place.

Actually, that's unfair.

Canary supporters have the added frisson this season of knowing that if the current inclement financial weather does not yield an investor or two of Marcus Evans' ilk, then that £1.5 million hole in their accounts will leave the cupboard all but bare come January – player-wise and purse-wise, City will be left to dine on scraps.

Which is why this weekend's trip to Bristol City, the back-to-back home games against Wolves and Doncaster Rovers – all to be followed by the joys of a rematch with Derby County and the unending delight that is Turf Moor in November – have to start yielding points before Norwich are engulfed in the bottom three.

Of the five, Doncaster is key. Absolutely.

Personally, I'd take two points from the next two games, if I could guarantee three from the Rovers game.

Which, of course, is a next to nigh impossible ask of the Canaries; beyond guaranteeing that they will have 11 players on the pitch come 3pm Saturday, it's all-too often in the lap of the footballing gods as to what, exactly, happens next.

But if you then go away to Derby on the Tuesday night and away to Burnley the following Saturday with five points on the board, then you have a chance of emerging into the sunlight thereafter in reasonable shape.

Anything less than four points from the next three games and the pressure really does start to mount.

The other point about the next five games is that it coincides with the end of Leroy Lita's loan spell.

He's back to Reading on November 1 and from there to QPR if last week's reports are to be believed.

By then he has to have made a difference.

Given the current financial climate and the fact that the Canaries could be in a serious mess if the 24-year-old fails to deliver over the course of the rest of the month, twisting the arm of anyone remotely decent to join the good fight could stretch even Glenn Roeder's proven persuasive powers.

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