I was recently asked what the worst part of writing this column was.

East Anglian Daily Times: Frustration for Town fans during the recent 3-1 home defeat to Bristol City. Photo: Steve Waller.Frustration for Town fans during the recent 3-1 home defeat to Bristol City. Photo: Steve Waller. (Image: � Copyright Stephen Waller)

I struggled to find an answer to be honest but I admit to being completely frustrated at having to sit down on a Saturday evening writing my thoughts about a defeat that occurred just a few hours earlier when in midweek, there had been a fantastic win.

I feel a bit miffed about that and wish it could be the other way round and my mood would be a calmer one in which to put my thoughts into print.

So forgive me for tracking back to last Tuesday night and at least starting this week’s column off on some kind of positive note.

Let me remind you of what I wrote at the end of last week’s column:

“I know, I know, I’m always asking for more than I should be but surely a win with a good performance to boot should come around more than once a season shouldn’t it?”

It’s fair to say that I certainly got what I wished for in that 5-2 victory over Sunderland.

We pressed from the very first minute in much the same way as Leeds had done against us in the preceding game. Although Sunderland were soon on level terms, we remained the better side and never looked back once we scored our second. The only blip was when Martyn Waghorn and Bersant Celina were substituted we went into our shell for about 15 minutes. At 4-2, Sunderland would have felt that they were still in the game. But the fifth goal rounded off a comprehensive performance which was about as good as it gets.

Another great indicator of how good a performance is, is when you hear reactions of the opposing fans.

After the game, the carriage that I entered into for my train journey home had about a dozen Sunderland fans in it. They were very critical of their side indeed and you sensed the worry that they had for their season as they chewed over the fat of another defeat.

I wondered for a moment if our win had been purely down to how bad they were and had we not been as good as I had thought.

One comment was that they’d made Waghorn look like Ronaldo! But then there was a change in their line of thought.

Whilst previous defeats had been reckoned against poor sides, they spent the next five minutes praising our performance and how we had been the best side they’d seen so far this season. They talked of us being dark horses for the play-offs and how not many teams would come to Portman Road and win this season.

I sat there with a smile on my face wondering how many games at home moving forward we could replicate both the performance and result.

Suffice to say, I was a very proud man sitting in that carriage.

Football has a nasty habit of placing you on a high and when you think all is well, it will bring you back down to a nasty low and question of how far we’d go was soon answered on Saturday.

Yet another game against opposition in or around the top six led to defeat and such a different performance. It was probably as much to do with the difference between Bristol City and Sunderland themselves as the two performances. Yes, City scored with two deflected goals but let’s not kid ourselves, they deserved the win and showed that not only are they currently better than Sunderland, but better than us too.

They made us look a different side to Tuesday for sure.

But overall, we’re better than last term and we’re in a better position than we could have hoped for a quarter of the way into the season. We just need to find the consistency that we had at the start of the season.