Margaret Thatcher was in power, Rocky Balboa was knocking out Ivan Drago and Neil Adams was a fresh-faced young professional at Stoke City the last time Norwich triumphed against Fulham.

Adams has witnessed much of the torture first-hand since a landmark winning visit to Craven Cottage in January 1986, which culminated in a painful introduction to management back in April. Much has happened to Norwich's manager and his club during the intervening period, but City return in good heart.

'It was six months ago, it feels more like six years,' he said. 'I was disappointed at the time because I felt we should have won the game but they have a new manager in charge now and its two new teams. That was a really good performance from us but we didn't win and for once we want to come back from that place smiling.

'I've sat through some of those games when Norwich have been thumped and the last time we were there that wasn't the case.

'I can't do anything about the history of it. People can portray them as a bit of a bogey team for us or whatever - I look at it as a great opportunity to go and put the record straight and come back with a win.

'They have picked up. Kit (Symons) has got them recovering from a slow start. They have their tails up a little bit and they had a great home win last time although I know they lost at Middlesbrough, but they have good players. That is why it is puzzling to see them down there, just the same as if we had been at the bottom of the table, because a lot of them have played in the Premier League.'

Adams sees the parallels between Symons' interim experiment and his own towards the end of last season, after the Welshman was installed as Felix Magath's stop-gap replacement last month.

Symons must rely on no favours in his on-going bid to take permanent control with Adams' squad proving a force to be reckoned with away from Carrow Road - Norwich head to Thames targeting a fifth consecutive away league win.

'Kit's come in and he's turned them around and got them getting results so I think the six or seven results before he went in are pretty much irrelevant now because they're a different team,' said Adams. 'Of course they started really slowly and if you ask me would it have been nice to play them at that stage then probably so, but we know what we're up against. We've watched them, they're a good team, they've turned it around and we know we have a tough game on our hands.

'We're equally as big a threat at home as we are on the road. We've only picked up one point from two home games but it could have quite easily been six. Yes, there was a question mark about us on the road after years of struggling and pleasingly four wins on the spin in the early part of the season have answered that. We'll do everything we can to make it five.'