Anthony Pilkington responds to Norwich City fans after scoring in Saturday's 2-0 win over Bolton at Carrow Road. Picture: Paul Chesterton / Focus Images

Sherlock Holmes I’m not, but I do believe I detected a huge clue that leads me to believe that Norwich City will be a Premier League team next season.

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It wasn’t the disappearance of the ‘clock’ from a website which thought it fun to chart the Canaries top-flight demise, hour by hour, day by day – only to find the egg might be splattered all across their own face.

Rather it was the way both goals were scored against Bolton at the weekend. Had that been much earlier in the season, things might have turned out differently.

Why? Because it looked to me that City had more than clearly learned a few things about life at the top since stepping out at Wigan on August 13. When Andrew Surman’s first shot was blocked by David Wheater he reacted quickly to volley home the follow-up.

There was little time to react, little time to hold head in hands and wonder how Wheater had blocked his shot in the first place. The mind was on scoring from the follow-up. This from a player who had reason to do what many of his peers have done over the years and hide behind his embarrassment having missed the target from six yards earlier in the game.

The execution of the first goal was similar to the second: this time, Russell Martin turned brilliantly to get in a shot which keeper Adam Bogdan parried.

Anthony Pilkington, who had been involved earlier in the move, was on the edge of the area when all this was happening, but in an instant he was on hand to bury the rebound past the Bolton keeper.

The work by Martin was immense, the finish excellent.

The theme: never give up on a half chance. The movement of all concerned was excellent, there was no hands on head because a chance had been missed. This is the Premier League – you don’t get time to think about what might have been.

The supplementary evidence which supports the theory was the loss of two central defenders before half-time; on other occasions, with other teams, it would have been a disaster.

With Norwich, it helped further prove the advantage you get if you build a team, rather than put 11 individual talents on to a football pitch.

To be able to ask a full-back to fill in alongside a part-time (although accomplished) centre-half while your winger play full-back, proves how shrewdly Paul Lambert operates when it comes to building his squads – something which he has had to do quite often since inadvertantly ruining the seven-year plan to the top.

Asking your players to do that without, it seemed, a blink of an eye, means you have a reciprocal trust – you won’t catch Elliott Bennett Tweeting that he didn’t like dropping back into an unaccustomed role. It’s that teamwork theme again.

And then there are the mistakes.

“At this level, you have got to be really clued in at both ends of the pitch, and we are still learning,” Lambert after the 1-0 home loss to West Brom in September.

“The pass back initially was the mistake,” Lambert after the November defeat at Aston Villa.

“The second goal was our mistake in the first place,” Lambert after the home defeat by Arsenal in November.

The lesson, it would appear, has been learned; they’ve tightened things up. Since the start of December, City have played 13 games, in all competitions, winning six, drawing four and losing three. That’s not bad form by any means and even if you take the two FA Cup wins out, it’s still more wins than losses.

Before December, City had played 14 games, winning four, drawing four and losing six, including ‘that’ Carling Cup game against MK Dons – more defeats in the league than wins.

And with every point a prisoner, the current little run is vital. Drawing at home to Chelsea, going five games unbeaten away from home – it’s all confidence-boosting stuff. It’s not all perfect – Sunderland away wasn’t – but there are fewer mistakes being made, fewer bad defeats, fewer “if only” feelings post-match.

There will be no more stats thrown your way from this direction because they can be misleading when they are effected by human nature: chuck in an unexpected defeat and it all goes to pot.

What I am relying on is a little bit of gut instinct and what I have seen with my own eyes. Lambert said City would have to learn quickly, and to my mind they are doing exactly that.