I can remember feeling disappointed when Paul Lambert (also unknown) took over the Carrow Road hot seat from Bryan Gunn in August 2009 after all the hype about other candidates supposedly in contention. However, chief executive David McNally's decision to hire Lambert proved to be a master stroke and hopefully the same will happen with Alex Neil.

The fact that Neil is only 33 years old has raised a few eyebrows and also the fact that he has less than two years managerial experience, still a lot more than Neil Adams had. But the way he has rejuvenated the likes of Sebastien Bassong, Elliott Bennett and Lewis Grabban especially suggests that his man management skills are strong. In other words, the young but mature Scotsman commands respect and knows how to get his team playing for him. He doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Neil learnt a lot from Billy Reid, his predecessor at Hamilton and advised him to join Swansea 5 years ago when they wanted him to replace Paulo Sousa. Reid however decided to stay at New Douglas Park and eventually lost his job in April 2013. He is now an assistant manager in Sweden's Second Division. Neil is an ambitious manager and won't be daunted by the fact that most of the Norwich players have played at a higher level than him. Neil has only played in the lower leagues of English football for Barnsley and Mansfield Town. In fact Neil is still registered as a player but is unlikely to select himself.

The Norwich players will respect a manager who masterminded Hamilton's first win at Celtic Park since 1938 and guided this tiny club to the top of the Scottish Premiership in October 2014. Neil will concentrate on his own team's strong points instead of over respecting the opposition like Chris Hughton did.

Obviously it is still early days and there is a lot of hard work to be done. The team still need to cut out the mistakes, such as allowing inferior opposition back into games that should have been won easily (Cardiff at home and Charlton away). Neil rightly pointed out after the 3-2 victory at the Valley that the Canaries wouldn't be able to get away with sloppy defending against their promotion rivals.

Norwich have kept 10 clean sheets so far in 33 league games. That figure needs to improve if the Canaries want to reach the play-offs at a minimum. Automatic promotion will be difficult but is not impossible. Unlike last season we've been scoring goals for fun in 2014/15 with 64 in 33, an average of nearly 2 a game with Cameron Jerome leading the goalscoring charts with 16. Jerome has arguably been our player of the season so far and has popped up with some crucial late goals for us, especially away from home.

The appointment of Alex Neil was greeted with a mixture of surprise and fear by the Carrow Road faithful but how can you not respect a man who fined himself for taking his Hamilton team out on a three-course lunch? If that's what he views as indiscipline I would hate to face him when he's really angry!