Having covered a fair number of games there down the years, I always found Norwich's Carrow Road ground to be one of the friendliest of places, in terms not only of the press - for whom the only downside was the strangely counter-intuitive swinging seats on which you had virtually to slot yourself into the press box – but also in terms of the fans.

They were vociferous in support of their own, but demonstrably less vitriolic or violent than other sets of supporters one could mention.

Not that I am suggesting painting a dressing room pink is vitriolic or violent. But it is at least a step away from sporting. A shade dodgy.

Pink, or to use the exact hue used by Norwich, "deep pink", is said by people who know about these kind of things to lower testosterone levels and have a calming effect.

So let's just take a breath here.

Riiiiiggggght….

First point. Is there any science, or sense, to this?

Paint the town pink. I see a red door and I want to paint it pink. These are phrases you probably haven't heard. And there's a reason for that. Because they make no sense. 

Pink has all the wrong associations.

"Pink has an effect, not because it is pink, but because it's linked to childhood experiences," says Dr Alexander Latinjak, a lecturer in sport psychology at the University of Suffolk.

Yes. Pink is Barbie. Pink is girlie. Blue for a boy and pink for a girl.

Second point. Is this an original move by Norwich City?

Negative. The University of Iowa has long since embraced pink, perhaps even deep pink, as the colour of choice for visitors who have the nerve to turn up and challenge its American football team.

Thinking pink has also been embraced for wider and, dare one say, more important reasons.

In 2013 it was reported that 30 jail cells in Switzerland had been painted pink in an effort to calm aggressive inmates, although it was also reported that said inmates would often emerge more wound-up than before and complaining about being locked up in what looked like a girl's bedroom.

The theory behind this chromatic experimenting holds that - are you sitting down for this? - despite some cross-cultural differences in the way certain colours are regarded, there are also some cross-cultural similarities.

Maybe just take a minute to let this sink in? Perhaps sit yourself down in a calming - pink - environment?

Okay. Let's go again.

The study that ventured to suggest that some colours play the same wherever in the world you are suggested that the colour red was widely associated with strength and activity.

Broadly speaking, this data suggested that red was commonly perceived as being the colour of excitement and power. Black was associated with grief and fear, but also sophistication.

On a very unscientific, indeed blatantly personal note, I have never forgiven the coach of the youth football team for whom I once played for deciding to change our kit from vertical black and red stripes - AC Milan, Man City winning the FA Cup in 1968 - for a lamentable purple and yellow combo that made us look like a bunch of variegated pansies and violas. We were never the same team again…

Continuing with the colour associations, brown suggests ruggedness, white is associated with sincerity and purity - now we know why Don Revie turned Leeds United whiter than white in the mid 1960s - and pink, here we go, is widely redolent of sincerity and femininity.

While Norwich have been experimenting with their décor, another English Championship team, Queen’s Park Rangers, newly managed by the unlamentedly former England boss Steve McLaren, have been getting in touch with their own gentle and sincere sides.

On Saturday (August 18), playing at West Bromwich Albion, they wore shirts of pink. Deep pink, in fact. And lost 7-1 - their biggest defeat in 31 years.

Which may go to show that pink is not a colour with which successful football sides want to become associated.

But back to Norwich. 

I wonder how strong an effect they are hoping for from their testosterone-light dressing room? A manager, perhaps, urging his players to try quite hard but not to make a spectacle of themselves? A star centre forward siting weeping in the corner, explaining that the game seems so horrible and competitive, and why can't everybody win?

Well Norwich lost their first home Championship match against West Bromwich Albion 4-3 last Saturday week. But their last two home games have seen a 3-1 EFL Cup win over Stevenage and, last night, a 2-0 Championship win over Preston North End. 

But it's still, I think, a bit early to say they are in the pink...