Norwich City column: Fans will expect a side capable of a promotion push come August

As defeats go, it’s hard to remember many as infuriating, and potentially damaging, as Tuesday night’s capitulation against Sheffield Wednesday.

Even now the dust has settled, the abject nature of that second half performance still leaves an incredibly sour taste in my mouth.

Like most, I’ve been willing to accept flaws this season under the new regime, especially given the average age of the squad, but that was simply inexcusable for players of any age or experience.

And while I don’t want to overreact, ultimately it is a massive red flag against the character and mentality of this team – an issue that needs to be addressed if we are to make progress next season.

Because let’s face it, this season is over. A run of one win in seven games has made sure of that.

Of course, it is important to finish as strongly as possible, for morale and belief if nothing else, but the focus now inevitably turns to August, when the onus will be on Johannes Hoff Thorup to deliver a side capable of challenging for promotion. There are no excuses.

At this point I will state I’m fully behind the Dane, but since winning away at Watford in early February, a result that really put us into play-off contention, you cannot hide from the fact we have significantly underachieved.

Six points from games against Derby, Preston, Hull, Stoke, Blackburn, Oxford United and Sheffield Wednesday is an extremely poor return. That’s before you even consider that we led in four of the games we didn’t go on to win, to bring it back to the point about weak mentality.

Hoff Thorup needs to take his share of responsibility for our failure to kick-on, at a time when he had a good squad of players at his disposal.

The bottom line is that there is no quick fix. But it feels like a good place to start is being ruthless when it comes to dealing with senior players who have continually underperformed – in some cases for several seasons.