Norwich City keeper John Ruddy exchanges congratulations with makeshift centre-back Russel Martin. Picture: Paul Chesterton / Focus Images

You never forget your first time, or so they say, but as good as winning at the Reebok Stadium back in September was, this victory over Bolton really should be the one to be remembered.

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Winning the first game of the season – and doing it away from home – was an important marker to set down in only the fifth fixture of the season.

But Saturday was the day that even the most doubting of Thomas’s – well, Marks or Alans – on Match of the Day or Sky Sports must finally have realised that the Canaries are actually on course for at least a second season in the Premier League.

Does anyone who was at Carrow Road on Saturday really believe that Bolton, on this showing, are going to amass the 13 points just to overtake our present points tally, without us winning any further games? Don’t think so. Their game against Wigan this weekend should be, er, interesting.

It’s all very well them taking points off the likes of Everton, Liverpool and Arsenal, but it’s games like Saturday’s which are the ones that mark or break your survival homes.

And at Carrow Road they were beaten by a team which, for much of the game, had a right winger at right- back and two full-backs in the centre of defence.

At half-time I’d willingly have taken a point; anything to maintain the nine-point gap between Bolton and ourselves.

But Paul Lambert plainly wasn’t going to settle for that and City spent much of the season half constantly pushing forward against perhaps the worst side to have visited Carrow Road this season, or at least one who steadfastly refused to take advantage of the opposition’s defensive limitations.

It was all the more remarkable victory since Lambert didn’t have a wealth of reshuffle options had Bolton changed things themselves after he had been forced into two early unwanted substitutions.

Yet again the Norwich bench has proved its tactical nous in the matches that really matter. In recent weeks we’ve beaten Bolton, West Brom and QPR when we might have easily drawn all three.

Instead the extra six points have taken us well away from the danger zone, and also allowed us to have off-nights at Sunderland.

Yes it was a bad performance on Wednesday night, and had it come right at the start of the season I would have been a bit concerned at where the necessary 10 wins were going to come from.

But with City having regularly chalked up the wins this season, it was a case of putting Wednesday behind us and getting on with things, knowing that we have already proved our ability to win the games which matter.

Had Ayala and Whitbread not been injured I’m sure we would have gone on to record an even more convincing win, but one which might perhaps not have been so deserving of plaudits because it would have been achieved without difficulty.

All in all, as at any point during the last two-and-a-half years, it was just pretty much business as usual at Carrow Road. City defy the odds and Lambert takes another step towards being manager of the season.

n One final thing about the manager: As usual I can’t really fault his transfer dealings, but last month’s signings smack of a man already planning for next season and a chance to push his squad on further and upwards. Not one who might decide that’s he’s taken the club as far as he can and will wait for a new challenge to come his way.

Meanwhile, the slim chances of Grant Holt ever moving north of border diminished even further yesterday with Rangers getting knocked out of yet another competition in front of a home crowd of just 17,822.

You’d have to have a very good reason for wanting to make that move – such as a burning desire to get knocked out of the very early rounds of the Europa League.

• FANS WHO MADE IT TO PAULTON DESERVE PRIORITY

FA Cup involvement not withstanding, three months today we’ll be off to Arsenal for a fixture for which visiting tickets are likely to be the most sought after this season.

We’ll get an allocation of 3,000, but you rather suspect that if we were to get an enhanced cup allowance – Ipswich took three times as many there in the Carling Cup last season – it still wouldn’t be enough.

It’s a pity that due to their rapid progress up the league ladder Norwich City have been unable to set up a better ticket application process than the current model for in-demand fixtures such as this one.

It can be all too easy to abuse, as the healthy eBay trade in used ticket stubs last summer would testify.

Incidentally I‘ve noticed that after away games this season people no longer discard their tickets stubs, leaving them to be picked up and used by other supporters.

I’m sure if club officials could go back in time they’d be able to devise a system which rewards the loyal fans who go to the less attractive games – as run by the likes of Leeds United.

You’d like to think that if ever we were to get anywhere in the FA Cup this season, say, that anyone who could prove they went to the Paulton Rovers or Carlisle FA Cup ties two seasons ago – watched by 485 and 452 Canaries fans respectively – or maybe the Gillingham, Swindon and Southampton Johnstone’s Paint Trophy games – 556, 848 and 817 – should be guaranteed a seat for a major occasion.

Sometimes such loyalty can be completely overlooked in the gimme, gimme gimme world of the Premier League.

• CONSISTENCY HAS BEEN KEY TO SURVIVAL

As it begins to appear that it will take a collapse of 1995 proportions to see the Canaries relegated now, time for one last mention of Blackpool.

At the 24-fixture point we’re now four points better off than them, and the Seasiders’ next nine games produced a haul of just five points.

Can’t exactly see that happening with City, not only because of the matches we’ve got coming up during that time, but also our general consistency this season:

• October 15, 11 points from eight games

• December 17, 20 points from 16 games

• February 4, 32 points from 24 games

Besides, who knows just how many points will be needed to stay up now?

Two seasons ago 32 would have been enough.

And on the evidence of the bottom three’s displays at the weekend you have to wonder whether that will be the case again this year.

• A REMINDER OF... WALSALL

Around this time two years ago we had to do without Grant Holt, above, for three-and-a-half games yet we picked up nine points which went a long way to securing the League One title.

And if there’s one match that really stands out for me that season it’s the Holt-less midweek win on a shocking pitch at Walsall, where, on a night when things just weren’t going the Canaries’ way, everyone on and off the field still believed enough in the cause to make things happen.

And so it proved, with two goals in the last 13 minutes securing a dramatic 2-1 victory.

And the memories of a great night at the Banks’s Stadium – not a phrase you use very often, I’ll grant you – came flooding back against Bolton on Saturday. When the end-of-season reviews are complied, there will be other games and goals which steal the limelight, but it’s games like Bolton and Walsall that don’t deserve to be overshadowed.