Typical Manchester United

Norwich City 1-1 Manchester United XI

In 2005 Norwich City beat Manchester United 2-0 at Carrow Road in a Premier League game. Four years and three months on, another sign of how far they have fallen. In 2005 it was the Manchester United XI that were put to the sword, this was a Manchester United XI.

An enjoyable game though, brought to life by a fine goal from 17-year-old Tom Adeyemi for Norwich. One to watch for certain.

This United team were managed by one Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, famed for his super-sub role not least in the 1999 Champions League final. With that in mind I suppose it was inevitable that they would indeed equalise and it would come late in the game.

One benefit of the affable Norwegian being in charge was his willingness to be interviewed after the game. Had it have been the 'proper' United team my BBC labelled microphone would have killed off any hope of Sir Alex talking to us I guess.

The game featured first appearances in City shirts for Ben Alnwick, Grant Holt and Simon Whaley. Alnwick saved a penalty just 24-hours after joining the club and playing his part in a dramatic press conference.

Seasoned football journalists have a system for working out what is going on at a club. It involves counting the chairs behind the top table when you turn up for a press conference. This one, at 9.30 on a Friday morning, started with just one desk and one seat for manager Bryan Gunn.

Gradually officials at the club were adding extra chairs until there were four and a second desk had been introduced. Between us, the 6 or 7 journalists in the room had worked out this meant three new signings. We were just getting our speculation in order when it was noticed the club had already announced the signings of Whaley and Rhoys Wiggins on their website. A sign of the times. You can be at a press conference and yet be among the last to find out the news.

Seven-or-so hours later and another press conference was called. This was more straight forward, featuring simply Gunn and Grant Holt. I think we even got the news before it had gone online.

There's always something exciting about a new signing. One of my favourites was the day Peter Crouch and Darren Huckerby were unveiled as Norwich City's new loan signings. Crouch, we already knew about, but we were promised another mystery Premier League forward. All bets were off when Huckerby's car, complete with giveaway personal number plate, was spotted in the training ground car park.