It’s been a busy international week, so some of our lads have been away, but for the majority of us we have been working towards our next run of games. The boys have responded very well in training and the fortnight has provided us with the chance to paint the full picture of what is required of everybody.

Dean Ashton retuned to training on Thursday after being away with the England Under-21s and he was very disappointed to go out in the play-offs to France. He’s in great form for us at the minute and he’s chomping at the bit, looking forward to Saturday so he can get out there and try and bounce back quickly.

Elsewhere on the international scene it was another very positive result for Northern Ireland as they drew one-each with Portugal at Windsor Park. It’s wonderful for the country; such a good result following so quickly after the win over England and it starts to give great confidence to the nation.

With a number of good players coming through, they are beginning to get a settled side and they could start to make serious things happen.

But for now, unlike England, the World Cup is still a long way off I think. They just have to continue to build, keep working hard and try to get a stable squad and, if they can bring through some players to add to what they have, it will give them a real chance going forward.

Development of players is paramount for teams looking to the future. At Norwich, the academy system is doing well and is producing some good players. There are a few lads that have been earmarked as potential professionals, and we really encourage young players; if they are good enough we will give them an opportunity and that can only be good for the club.

At the moment though, we want to try and get a settled eleven, players happy playing with each other, but it’s hard.

It’s been one step forward and two back with us this season. It’s frustrating, we’re trying to get things sorted out and get players back from injury so we’ve got to be patient, keep believing and hopefully it’ll start to turn around for us.

I’d like to try and get a settled side and stick to it as much as possible because I believe there’s a continuity that comes with that both in performances and results. But when you have games on Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, inevitably you’ll have to bring fresh legs in, but I don’t like to mess around too much.

We’ve just got a couple of new lads in on loan; Dickson Etuhu in from Preston, who’s looking forward to getting his first game under his belt and David Wright in from Wigan who give us some cover while players are out.

After Saturday's game against Luton we’ve got four away games on the bounce and aren’t back at Carrow Road until 17 December when we play Southampton. But that’s the way the fixtures have been thrown at us and, like injuries and suspensions to players, you have to deal with it and hopefully pick up the points on the way.

We really trying to get a few good results back to back and then that will put us amongst the top six somewhere and it will hopefully give us momentum to carry on up the table. Sheffield United and Reading have both had a fantastic starts to the season but for us, realistically, we should be pushing for the play-off zone as we’re not far off.

We want to get in the mix sooner rather than later and then work from there to see if we can sneak a bit higher come may. e know what we’ve got to do, so now it’s a case of going out there and doing it.