Thirty years have passed since Norwich last played at Wembley. Thirty years since City got there by beating Ipswich over a two-legged semi-final.

Thirty years since Ken Brown's side beat a team in red and white to lift a trophy there. Any City fan looking to take comfort from a good omen over the next fortnight has the perfect one to cling on to.

That scenario unfolded perhaps unexpectedly at Carrow Road as every team in the top six changed places on the final day, although not in the way many of us had dared to dream a few weeks ago.

As the race for automatic promotion became more and more heated over March and April, the last match of the season had been earmarked as a potentially decisive one.

The fact that Fulham would be the opponents added even more spice. It may have been 29 years without a victory over them, but none of us have to cast our minds too far down memory lane to remember some haunting ones.

A poor performance at Craven Cottage earlier this season, last year's defeat there that all-but sealed relegation, a particularly hopeless FA Cup display at the same venue months earlier that surely had to go down as one of the worst under Chris Hughton's reign and of course that mauling in 2005 which had promised so much.

As it was, City fans had no cause for sleepless nights about whether we could turn the tide in another crucial fixture against the West London side. Instead, Saturday's match had the feel of a pre-season friendly. Fourth-place was guaranteed, third-place hinged on us winning and Middlesbrough not.

The real drama happened elsewhere in the Championship. Even the notoriously restrictive mobile data at Carrow Road didn't stop updates of scores elsewhere constantly filtering through to the ground as it transpired Ipswich would finish sixth as Norwich climbed to third.

Derby's sensational slump from being hot favourites for automatic promotion to missing out on the play-offs altogether culminated in a miserable 3-0 defeat at home to Reading.

It's incredible to think that Steve McClaren's side were two points clear at the top of the league less than 10 weeks ago while their final position was eighth, 12 points outside the top two.

Before the game we all knew the City result could be largely irrelevant, heading into the away leg of a play-off semi final having not won in three would have hardly been ideal preparation.

To that end, Alex Neil's side have at least restored some confidence after a defeat and a draw in the last two.

So a trip to Portman Road on Saturday awaits, and with it comes a favourites tag pinned to City given the two victories earlier this season. As Neil led the team round the pitch for the traditional lap of honour on Saturday, all the talk turned to our chances of getting to Wembley.

Whether this season is a success or failure will now depend on three matches. Either way, I think most Norwich fans would agree there are no question marks remaining over Neil's tenure.

We'll never know where City would have finished if he had been installed in the summer instead of half way through the campaign, but the Scot was forced to play catch-up the first day he set foot in Colney.

Now, for the first time in a while, Norwich and Neil are not reliant on any other teams or results.

It's up to the squad we had so much faith in before the start of the season and the manager who's helped to restore it so spectacularly to deliver once more against the team we'd most want them to.