took the lead in the first half through ex-Ipswich striker Dean Bowditch, before Norwich came back in the second half with goals from Chris Martin and Gary Doherty giving the Canaries a 2–1 lead. However, Yeovil quickly equalised and then looked to have won it after a 90th-minute goal, before a Russell Martin shot deflected off Gary Doherty in injury-time to ensure a share of the spoils. Two home matches against fellow promotion chasers came next, with Huddersfield Town the first to be dispatched - being defeated 3–0 - before a 2-0 Boxing Day success over Millwall left Norwich just 2 points shy of second-placed Charlton. January January proved to be a pivotal month for Norwich and they started it with a 1–0 win away at struggling Wycombe. Although the Canaries dominated the game they failed to make the breakthrough, and indeed were living dangerously at times with the home side coming close to taking the lead but for the width of the post. But Korey Smith eventually struck the winner in the 79th minute to send Norwich second in the league and into the automatic places for the first time this season. City followed this up with a 3–1 win at home to Exeter, which meant that they went into arguably their biggest game of the season so far - the return fixture against Colchester (with whom there had been considerable bad feeling brewing since Lambert's departure to Carrow Road) - in solid form. After the 7–1 drubbing on the opening day of the season and Paul Lambert's return to Colchester, it had all the makings of a classic. Ultimately though, the match merely served as a way for Norwich to exact fitting revenge, thrashing their hosts 5–0 on an extremely waterlogged pitch. A Chris Martin double put City 2–0 up at half-time before Gary Doherty, Grant Holt and Oli Johnson made it 5–0, with Wes Hoolahan's missed penalty proving not to be costly, whilst Colchester finished the match with 10 men thanks to Ian Henderson's sending off against his former side. On top of handing out a convincing defeat in a local derby, Norwich had now also closed the gap to league-leaders Leeds, and due to the latter's cup commitments, meant that City would usurp Leeds with a win over Brentford in their next match. That task was made more difficult after Grant Holt's sending off in the