Never Mind The Danger

The Drury's Out on This Record

2010-02-05T16:45:00.003Z

Norwich City 2-1 Hartlepool

Adam Drury is Norwich City's longest serving player and one of the most reliable around. Since joining the canaries in 2001 he's been right up to the Premier League and back down and then down again. He's been an excellent, solid, often impressive performer - one of few constants during several chaotic years with the club.

The one thing the left back doesn't do is score goals very often. He picks his moments when he does. The last one, more than 5 years ago now, was the dramatic late equaliser in a 4-4 Premier League draw with Middlesbrough as Norwich thundered back from 4-1 down with 12 minutes to go. So how must Drury have felt when his replacement in this game scored within about half an hour of making his debut?

Michael Rose was brought in on loan from Stockport after the unfortunate Drury got injured at Walsall. He'd got back to the sort of form that once earned him the tag of 'the best left back outside the Premier League' lately after a couple of injury-ravaged seasons.

Rose thumped in an angled drive to make it 2-1. Norwich had gone 1 down just seven minutes earlier but Cody McDonald equalised within 63 seconds and in doing so helped create one of those magic moments that has made the Jeff Stelling hosted Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports one of the genuine success stories of the modern day.

After getting the winner Rose unleashed a shock just as big as a goal from a left back at Carrow Road. It turns out he can take a long throw-in. He may not quite be Rory Delap size but when he bent his back and lobbed the ball into the Hartlepool penalty area just before half-time there were big gasps around the ground. The surprise extended further than the stands. Having joined on the Friday, Rose hadn't got round to telling his new team mates that he had this 'in his locker' as football people say. No-one managed to get on the end of it because they didn't know he could do it. There's something to work on up at the training ground then.

Norwich have won won ten straight games at home. That's the first time the canaries have ever managed it in one season.

Walsall 1 Norwich City......................2

2010-01-31T18:55:00.004Z

Walsall 1-2 Norwich City

When Paul Lambert emerged from the tunnel for the post-match interviews at The Bescot, sorry The Banks's Stadium, Walsall being one of a growing band of clubs to sell naming rights to their ground, the City boss gave a big puff of the cheeks and let go a sigh of relief.

Lambert was probably more animated than I have been used to seeing him during games here as Walsall led 1-0 with 15 minutes to go and the canaries were struggling to get going on a pitch described by my colleague Neil Adams as 'a ploughed field' but then Wes Hoolahan came to life and played superbly for the last quarter of an hour.

Chris Martin and sub Cody McDonald scored. Any goal from the latter is enough to give any soft football romantic a fuzzy feeling inside. He was a scaffolder on the London Underground and playing for Dartford until City signed him 12-months earlier. He had his Roy of the Rovers moment when he scored within 15 minutes of making his debut at Carrow Road and, even after a year in the pro game, he still reacts to goals in the way that I think I probably would if I ever got the chance to play for Norwich.

The Walsall tannoy man also had a good sense of the dramatic, leaving a big X Factor style pause during his half-time round-up of latest scores. He particularly sounded like the West Midlands Dermot O'Leary when he reached one of The Saddlers local rivals. A good example here was:

"Wolves Nil, Liverpool......................NIL"

Sadly he blotted his copybook by having Leeds and Swindon drawing 0-0 at half-time when Norwich fans knew their main rivals at the top of the table were actually 1-0 down. When the PA announcer was gently corrected by the away support ('you don't know what you're doing') he decided to take them on - he had a microphone after all so had a very easy right of reply.

"Well it says 0-0 here."

"Don't blame me, it's the computer that's got it wrong."

The Voycheck's in Between the Posts

2010-01-31T18:48:00.006Z

Norwich City 1-0 Brentford

Even the sending off of Grant Holt, the talismanic comic-book hero of a skipper could not keep the canaries fans from finally being able to sing the 'We are top of the league' song.

With Leeds engaged in a fancy FA Cup run at a game at Tottenham, a win by any score was always going to be enough to take Norwich to the summit. Eventually the goal came. 14 minutes from time Chris Martin slotted home a pass from new boy Oli Johnson.

Fraser Forster played his part with three remarkable saves as Paul Lambert took a calculated gamble.

Many managers would have seen a point as a decent result after having a player sent off but Lambert went with three at the back and clearly told his team to go for it. Had Forster not been in such good form Brentford might have won it but Lambert was rewarded for his bold approach.

As a commentator it was also good to get to grips with Wojciech Szczesny for the first time.

I know the idea of a foreign player in English football should not really be worthy of comment here in 2010 but the nudging and sniggering from people in my direction when the team-sheets came out made the on-loan Arsenal goalkeeper a talking point.

Thankfully there is an unofficial commentators club who can come to your rescue at times like these. My knight in shining armour was a marvelous chap by the name of Billy Reeves - a former record label owner, regular podcaster, BBC London travel presenter and reporter on all things Brentford.

Thanks to him I can tell you that when this Polish 'keeper reaches his potential, and having been described by Arsene Wenger as a 'great goalkeeper in the making' you may see him in the Premier League in the not-too-distant future, you can turn to your mates and tell them with much certainty that this man is called Voy-check Sir-Chezney.

Paul Lambert wins 12-1 on Aggregate

2010-01-25T14:44:00.002Z

Colchester United 0-5 Norwich City

Since the 7-1 on the opening day and the subsequent departure of Paul Lambert to Norwich, January 16th had been a date firmly inked into the diaries of Colchester and City fans.

Having turned up and seen it hammering with rain on an already soggy pitch I had two worries. 1- Would the game even be on and 2- Will Norwich fancy this?

I needn't have troubled myself. Norwich took to the conditions and after a confident start from Col U, never looked back from the moment Chris Martin scored his first. Some of Colchester's defending in the second half was on a par with Norwich's on the opening day. Perhaps the numerous replays of the goals from the 7-1 on the big screen at the ground distracted the home side more than Paul Lambert's new team.

The Norwich fans enjoyed what was a sweet victory and baited Colchester chairman Robbie Cowling who had spoken of his desire to 'win this game more than any other' before the match. After the game he responded by claiming a 7-6 aggregate win for the season. I suppose he has got a point, but I prefer to look it as Paul Lambert 12-1 The Rest.

Freeze A Jolly Good Fellow

2010-01-25T14:31:00.003Z

Norwich City 3-1 Exeter City

The problem when your team is doing well is that other clubs start to take notice. It was with much alarm that I watched on the Thursday before this game as Paul Lambert got gradually shorter.

He started the day at about 20-1 to become the next manager of Premier League Burnley. By the time I was skidding my way home through the snow after another early shift he was odds-on favourite. The more pessimistic City fans waited for the inevitable announcement. Thankfully it never came and by Friday morning Lambert was in the mood to puff out his chest and declare his undying love for the canaries. It made for a tremendous atmosphere for the Exeter match.

Having spent much of BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show on Thursday and Friday reading out school closures (more than 360 each day) I wondered whether the cold snap that was gripping Britain may even be too much for the Carrow Road undersoil heating. Not a bit of it. Only 6 games kicked off at 3pm in the whole league but this was one.

Even a goal from ex-Ipswich striker Marcus Stewart failed to prevent Norwich from winning again.

New signing Oli Johnson also made a terrific start to his City career, coming off the bench and beating three of four players with his first few touches of the ball before curling an effort wide. It would have been the most dramatic debut since Marc Libbra scored 15 seconds into his Carrow Road bow. Johnson got a song quicker than anyone though. 'Oli, Oli, Oli' - it may not be imaginative but it was good enough for 'Iwan, Iwan, Iwan' Roberts and 'Earnie, Earnie, Earnie' Earnshaw when they were leading the canaries line.

Wycombe, We Saw, We Conquered (just)

2010-01-25T14:19:00.002Z

Wycome Wanderers 0-1 Norwich City

The first game of 2010 and an exciting way to start the new decade.

Our commentary position at Adams Park, which I hilariously referred to as Neil Adams Park for the first part of the afternoon until my erstwhile co-commentator got fed up with it, was right in amongst the passionate City away support.

So many Norwich fans wanted to see the game that we met a couple when we arrived at midday who had been told they would not be allowed in the ground as they were not on Wycombe's mailing list. It is a sad state of affairs that football supporters cannot be trusted to all sit together and watch a game without causing trouble. I understand why the attitude of the minority makes segregation an important part of the modern game but when I saw how many empty seats were in the home end for this game, I wondered quite what Wycombe's policy had achieved. They had missed out on the income of selling two tickets and two Norwich fans who were (and I say this respectfully) old enough to be my parents and, although I am no security expert, didn't look like trouble makers to me.

If this was Ipswich v Norwich you might have understood. Wycome v Norwich is a much lower wattage.

The canaries found Wanderers 'keeper Scott Shearer in inspired form. He saved everything. He was that good that Paul Lambert, the Norwich boss, walked straight over and shook his hand afterwards. His Man of the Match award was one of the most straight forward I have ever seen.

Wycombe were holding out and almost took the lead when a rare second half attack saw them hit the post. Seconds later Norwich finally did score, young Korey Smith finally finding a way past Shearer.

Brazier Hands

2009-12-30T16:26:00.003Z

Walsall P-P Norwich City

The more time I spend watching football the more convinced I become that the actual 90 minutes when the match takes place are purely incidental when it comes to going to a game. This proves it.

We saw no football. Yet the Norwich supporters who had travelled the 3 hours (4 on a coach) to Walsall on this Bank Holiday Monday still returned to Norfolk with an excellent story to tell.

Every fan of any standing will have at least one or two of these 'the day they called off the game when we were already there' stories.

Given half an hour I could tell you about trips to West Brom and Burnley that ended with a good view of the ground but no actual match.

This Walsall one was ridiculous though. The official word came at 2.15pm but it had been clear there might be a problem for a good 45 minutes before that.

Norwich's manager Paul Lambert and chief exec David McNally had both been on the pitch digging the heels of their smart shoes into the turf, or at least trying to, as they convinced themselves it was too hard and frozen for a game a of football.

The odd site of a dozen or so braziers on the pitch when I arrived at about 12.30 originally convinced me that every effort was being made by Walsall to get the game on. They are now front runners for this seasons 'Best Use of the Youth Team' award. The Sadlers youngsters had spent the morning filling these metal barrels with wood to keep the fires going.

The fact the braziers remained in position an hour before the scheduled kick off was a sure sign we could start packing our bags.

Ref Mark Haywood gave us an interview, trotting out the usual line about 'players safety being the priority'. It's a point you can't argue with - if serious injury was a possibility then yes, the game should be called off. What I would rather have heard though was 'the fans are the priority'. The decision could have been taken mid-morning thus saving those who pay a lot of money to follow their team a whole, fruitless day on the road.

Football is in danger of taking its fans for granted - witness Norwich's FA Cup tie at Carlisle with the ridiculous kick off time of 5.15pm, making a return journey by train impossible. While I know the modern game has sold its soul to TV and cannot afford to turn down their demands with the cash at stake they would do well to remember that TV will only be interested while enough people want to watch the matches at home. They may not be the back page stars or posses valuable 'image rights' but the good old football supporter can only be ridden rough shod over so many times.

No Millwall, WE Fear No Foe

2009-12-30T16:13:00.003Z

Norwich City 2-0 Millwall

Boxing Day and a routine win at Carrow Road with Wes Hoolahan and Grant Holt scoring. That's 20 already for Holt - some effort as the league season reached its precise mid-point.

I have always felt a little sorry for Millwall. Yes, I know events at West Ham earlier this season did not do much to help the club shake off the image of football's trouble makers in-chief but it is entirely possible to have a decent straight forward match with Millwall.

Even those who have barely a passing interest in football have an opinion on Millwall. I have lost count of the number of times I have had that conversation in recent weeks that starts with someone asking "So what are you doing for Christmas?" Once I have got past the bit that always goes "fairly quiet, we'll be spending most of it with family" I then mention that I'm covering the Norwich game on Boxing Day and that we are playing Millwall at home.

"Millwall!" - That's the usual response, followed by a sharp intake of breath.

The Lions have learned to live with the reputation that can reduce many grown adults to whistling through their teeth and asking whether you are 'expecting any trouble' when they know you are going to watch them play.

'No-one likes us, we don't care' has been the refrain from the terraces for years and it's now made it onto the pitch after a fashion. This year's Millwall shirts have 'We Fear No Foe' written beneath the number. It doesn't have quite the desired effect when they are 2-0 down.

You Can Hang Your Hat on it

2009-12-29T16:26:00.003Z

Norwich City 3-0 Huddersfield Town

There's only one Ginger Pele. It was fabulous to hear the Barclay chanting in tribute to Gary Doherty after he'd smashed in his 4th in 3 games to wrap up a very good second-half display. I would have taken my hat off to him if it hadn't been so bloomin' cold.

Being mainly a winter sport, football doesn't lend itself to being warm and cosy to watch. Six days before Christmas, with snow on the ground, this was the coldest match of the year so far. I think the most freezing I have been at a match was about years ago at Coventry. The bit of the ground we needed to get into wasn't quite open when we got there and Neil Adams and I couldn't stand being outside so we hid in the ticket office at the Ricoh Arena. A few minutes later a Cov fan entered to buy his seat for the match. He was wearing shorts and flip flops. I doubt he made it through the afternoon. Forget the latest replica kit, real football supporters know that a decent set of thermals is what you need for much of the season.

Then there's the headwear fashion. I am quite boring and straight forward in going for the 4-4-2 of the hat world a black, woolly effort. Your older fan likes the flat cap - perhaps yearning for the days when Norwich played at The Nest and every supporter wore one and 2-3-5 formations were all the rage. At the other end of the spectrum was this man sitting just to my right hand side. I don't think I could compare it to a well known formation - if I could it would be something only Brazil whould have the chutspar to play.

He had an extraordinary creation on. it was mainly red with pretend snow, reindeer antlers sticking out the top and red flashing lights. Only Wes Hoolahan's marvellous goal and then pass to Chris Martin for the second was as remarkable.

Oh

2009-12-29T16:20:00.003Z

Southampton 2-2 Norwich City

(Southampton win on penalties)

I can't tell you a huge amount more than the facts above here having not been at the game.

Gary Doherty did score again though. No doubt this time.

I must admit, this came as quite a blow because since the start of the season. Actually, if I'm honest, even since relegation from The Championship started to look like more than just something to be a bit worried about back in February I had become convinced that Norwich would win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2010.

Maybe it was my way of cushioning the impact of actually having to play in the good old JPT for the first time but whatever the reason I had long since been visualising the canaries running out at Wembley and triumphantly climbing up to the Royal Box to get the infamous cup.

Even though Southampton equalised with the last kick of the game I still wasn't worried. We would easily win the penalty shoot-out because we ARE going to win the Cup.

Must take back that Wembley suit.

The Goal With Five Scorers

2009-12-29T16:04:00.004Z

Yeovil Town 3-3 Norwich City

One of my bugbears about modern-day football is that it is taken far too seriously. There is far too much chin stroking about formations, people being under pressure, financial implications and clubs in 'crisis' whenever they lose two matches in a row. This was one of those games that serves as a reminder as to why people really watch football.

I'll go further, it wasn't even so much the match as one brilliant moment right at the end. Norwich's 94 minute equaliser which made it 3-3. They had gone 3-2 down in stoppage time before one stupendous moment of utter chaos when, with City's goalkeeper Fraser Forster joining in the attack, Russell Martin fired one last desperate ball into the Yeovil penalty area. GOAL!!

But who had scored it? That isn't a comfortable question when, as a commentator, you are supposed to be right on top of things at all times. Had Martin's effort gone straight in or was there a touch among the forest of players in the penalty area. Gary Doherty certainly seemed to be claiming it, but the Yeovil PA man gave it to Darel Russell.

Second later, after the final whistle, it emerged Norwich's official website had given the goal to Grant Holt. Confusion no reigned, so there was one thing for it - ask the manager. So before the post-match interview with Paul Lambert I asked whether we should be crediting the dramatic equaliser to Doherty, Russell Martin, Darel Russell or Holt. "I thought it was Jens Berthel Askou." Lambert said. We now had 5 possible scorers.

Doherty was quick to make sure we all knew it was indeed his feather-like touch which had made all the difference and given him two goals in the game with Chris Martin getting the other.

A point at Yeovil will not even raise the most excitable of eyebrows when written down in cold record-book form. But those Norwich fans that were there were beaming long after full-time at seeing a moment of true, organic, unpredictable drama.

Forget the talk of 4-4-2's, 4-5-1's, and diamond midfields - football's better when the unexpected unfolds in front of you.

After Doherty's celebration Yeovil will have to re-work the above sign.

'WARNING! During the match, beware of Gary Doherty entering the stand.'

A Penney For Your Thoughts

2009-12-12T10:07:00.004Z

Norwich City 2-0 Oldham Athletic

There was many a wise old sage at Carrow Road before this one who saw it as their job to calm things down a little.

With City in such good form and Oldham struggling and decimated by injury problems it wasn't difficult to find home supporters predicting 4-0 or 5-1 wins. 'Expectation levels are getting too high' was the headmasterly warning from the more sobre, weather-beaten fans with some even pointing to the pressure a promotion push could pile on the team. I don't think it's a bad thing.

It is understandable that football managers and players will talk about there being 'no easy games' and that the 'opposition will make it difficult for us' because any bullish pre-match predictions leave them open to much egg on face. Fans don't have to worry quite so much.

Surely it is a good thing that supporters are turning up and see a win by a four goal margin as realistic. It means the team must be doing something right and as for the pressure, well, this kind of 'promotion battle' pressure is infinitely preferable to the relegation worried of previous years.

Oldham were beaten by first half strikes from Holt and Hoolahan. Their manager Dave Penney came up with a novel way of avoiding the glare during the game by appearing on the touchline in a tracksuit top bearing the initials 'LD'. I have never quite understood why being a manager entitles you to wearing your initials on your chest but they all do it.

While football supporters can be a demanding bunch they are are also a breed that few can match when it comes to pessimism.

Things have been going very well for Nowich lately, dare I say too well. There's an unspoken inner fear around Carrow Road, with its roots in the let-downs of recent years, which says 'somethings going to go wrong soon'.

This feeling was exposed when Great British professional football's top goal scorer so far this season, Grant Holt, hit the deck like a big old sack of spuds after a shin high challenge. The communal intake of breath at Carrow Road spoke volumes. 'That's it, he's out for the season.' You could almost hear people thinking it. Gradually Holt clambered back into a vertical, if unsteady, state and couldn't join in with the next two attacks as he hobbled around the halfway line.

Holt completed the game though and when I asked him about the challenge afterwards he replied: "The shin pad did its job."

That's the trouble with scoring 19 goals by early December. It makes people want to kick you.

An Unhappy Maric

2009-12-08T17:56:00.005Z

Southend United 0-3 Norwich City

No trip to Roots Hall for me, due to those pesky earlies, but Grant Holt (2) and Korey Smith's second half goals helped prove that Carlisle cup defeat was not anything to be too worried about.

It was just after this game that Paul Lambert revealed he had reached agreement with Serbian striker Goran Maric to release him just four months after joining the club.

Maric made the briefest of substitute appearances in the Carling Cup at Yeovil and then started the JP Trophy win over Brentford. His fate was sealed in that game. Lambert's constant hair pulling, swivelling on the spot and kicking out at thin air every time Maric touched the ball was probably the most obvious show of frustration about one player's performance I have ever seen from a manager.

It had all looked so promising in pre-season. Goran Maric was a demon on the tour of Scotland, scoring a couple of goals and looking like a lively customer. I wrote back in July of my great hopes for this Serbian striker but alas, and we should have learnt by now, a player on trial can be a different beast from a player with his inky fingermarks on a contract.

This is going to sound dreadfully xenophobic and I do not want it to, (I will be stopping short of saying 'they come over here......') but Norwich have never really had a lot of luck with foreign players. In recent years Zola, Bergkamp and Cantona have lit up English football with their flare and brilliance. With one or two notable exceptions (Steen Nedergaard anyone?) the canaries have never quite tapped into this rich supply of overseas talent.

Here's the evidence:

1- Michael Theoklitos (Australian) Let in seven on his debut. Not played since.

2- Thomas Helveg (Denmark) It was so exciting when Norwich signed a player who had previously been with AC Milan and Inter Milan. We thought we had really made it in that Premiership summer of 2004. He soon lost his place to Marc Edworthy.

3- Fernando Derveld (Holland) A dutch left-back discovered by Brian Hamilton. He was tall, quick and liked to get forward. He just wasn't very good.

4- Pape Diop (Senegal) You what? Pape Bouba Diop - a Premier League star with Fulham and Portsmouth a flop? No. This isn't him. This is Pape Seydou Diop who was due to spend the 1999/2000 season on loan from Lens. After 10 games that spell was cut short following allegations he spat at QPR fans during a particularly bad tempered game. Still he went on to be part of the Senegal team which defeated France in the first game of the 2002 World Cup didn't he? No. That side included Pape Malik Diop.

5- Dejan Stefanovic (Serbia) Perhaps a slightly harsh inclusion on a list of overseas flops for Norwich as it wasn't his fault he did his knee ligaments after just 12 league games for the club having looked fairly promising. He did manage to get himself sent off for arguing in a match at Southampton though. He either swore at the ref in English or swore at the ref in his native tongue and was unlucky to catch the Football League's only Serbian official.

6- Juan Velasco (Spain) Signed by Glenn Roeder in 2008 after being released by Espanyol. We had high hopes of this fella who had been part of Spain's Euro 2000 squad. He shouldn't have had any problems settling in East Anglia - he revealed he was best mates with Ipswich striker Pablo Counago. So what could go wrong? Well he played 3 games for City and in the final one, at Coventry, he was substituted after 21 minutes of the game.

7- Cedric Anselin (France) In fairness this one-time Bordeaux right winger achieved cult status during his 29 game (1 goal v Oxford United) spell as a Norwich player. The fact his list of post-canary clubs included King's Lynn, Dereham and Norwich United will tell you how rapid his fall from grace was.

8- Mattias Jonson (Sweden) One of the signings in the summer of 2004 brought in to make Norwich a competitive Premiership side. A Swedish international who had impressed in Euro 2004 for his country. 30 games for Norwich - 0 goals.

9- David Strihavka (Czech Republic) One of my favourite interviews of all time was when this 6ft striker scored the only goal of his Norwich career in a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. "I'm very, very happy" was the limit of his English. This perhaps wasn't helped by his team mates who revealed they had tried to help him settle in England and learn the language by taking him to see the Transformers film. Glenn Roeder got shot of him soon after taking over as manager. The Norwich fans nicknamed him 'Dave Striker' and he may just have had something - scoring against Tottenham in the UEFA Cup later that season. However his Norwich career was to last just 11 appearances, 8 of those from the bench.

10- Goran Maric (Serbia) The final piece of the jigsaw in this team, for the reasons mentioned above.

11- Raymond DeWaard (Holland) Another of Hamilton's curious signings. The left winger played 13 times for Norwich in a year. I have vivid memories of one Brian Hamilton press conference in which he was telling us how De Waard was unable to head the ball in training without closing his eyes.

A Mist Opportunity

2009-12-08T17:35:00.003Z

Carlisle United 3-1 Norwich City

The FA Cup provides two days of great footballing romance each season, first round day and third round day. In between there is the relative ugly sister - the second round. Typically this is where Norwich City's cup run would end. For the first time in almost half a century their name would be absent from the excitement of the third round draw.

The FA delayed the kick off until 5.15pm so they could screen the match live on their website making this an even later night than the previous Carlisle odyssey some seven weeks earlier. With broadband connections in Norfolk being about as reliable as an England player in a penalty shoot-out there was much scepticism as to whether this would be easy to watch for those City fans crowded round the monitors at home.

Even those of us not relying on a wobbly internet connection failed to see much. In the final five minutes before kick off a thick Cumbrian mist rolled in at such a rate we wondered whether the game would even start never mind be played to a finish. As it was the fog settled for taking the stand on the opposite side of the ground away from view, adding a sinister edge to proceedings rather than engulfing the ground completely. Given the floods which had devastated large areas of Cumbria a week earlier I suppose the weather was always going to have its say.

It turned out to an 'old-fashioned' Norwich away performance, by which I mean they were comfortably beaten. Until this season's Paul Lambert inspired resurgence, pack-of-card-style collapses away from home had been part of the canaries fabric.

They went 1-0 down here to a fabulous airborne backheel from Vincent Pericard, one of those where people always say 'if it had been scored by a Brazilian, they would never stop showing replays of it'.

Grant Holt equalised but a goal 15 seconds or so into the second half from Kevan Hurst and then Richard Keogh's header meant that Norwich's ball would not be in that funny dishwasher thing they now use for the FA Cup draw.

Not a Wind-Up

2009-11-27T20:05:00.002Z

Norwich City 4-1 Brighton and Hove Albion

Gus Poyet is new to football management, but not quite as new as his trainers.

The ex-Chelsea and Spurs midfielder only became Brighton boss a fortnight ago and clearly hasn't yet broken in his new sneakers. When you first get a pair of white trainers they can be too white can't they? You usually feel much less self-conscious once you have at least lost that 'fresh-out-of-the-shoe-box' shine.

It's like having a new haircut - when your trainers are too white everybody feels the need to point out "New trainers!" as if you didn't know.

It was comfortable enough in the end for Norwich. Gary Holt, Wes Hoolahan and Chris Martin all scored - that's 35 goals between them already.

Much of my attention after this game was taken up with Norfolk's second-biggest football team. King's Lynn lost 2-1 at home to Retford in the Unibond League Cup at The Walks. It could well be there last ever match.

A winding up order looks certain to go ahead in the high court tomorrow with the club owing the taxman over £65,000.

I've had a few memorable nights watching Lynn. Notably their FA Cup 2nd round tie with Oldham in 2006 in front of 5,000 at The Walks and then, 18 months later, travelling to watch them play their big promotion rivals Team Bath in a first v second clash as both sides were competing to break into conference football. The Linnets won it 4-0 - as impressive an away performance as you will see at any level.

That all seems so long ago now. What must it be like to applaud your favourite team off the pitch knowing that could be it? Not relegation, not a cup defeat - but the death of the club. I hope it isn't too late.

There's Something About St. Mary's

2009-11-27T19:48:00.002Z

Southampton 2-2 Norwich City

There was a time when this would have been a Premier League fixture. Then there was a time when this would have been a Championship fixture. It is now a third tier fixture.

Norwich and The Saints were both relegated from the top flight in 2005 and then dropped out of the next division at the same time back in May. They were able to come together and, just for 90 minutes, pretend they were still playing at a higher level.

It was a fabulous game. Norwich went 1-0 and 2-1 down, in recent years the canaries going behind away from home usually led to the sort of sporting collapse the England cricket team of the 1990's used to pride themselves on.

Wes Hoolahan and Stephen Hughes each equalised with Hughes proving that Paul Lambert can do very little wrong as City manager right now by poking in the goal that made it 2-2 with virtually his first touch after coming on.

Not that the demure Scot got the credit he deserved. The tannoy man at St. Mary's put on his best serious voice, the sort of grave, bearer of bad news tone that all PA men have to adopt when the away team dares score a goal.

"Norwich's second goal - scored by Gary Doherty."

A nasty moment for a football commentator. I was sure it was Hughes. Had I really just committed the sin of picking the wrong scorer? Was this my payback for organising all those mailshots telling me I had gone three years without an eye test?

Thankfully the confused faces of my press box brethren gave me the conviction to stick with my original shout. 30 seconds later PA man was back, still capturing the sort of tone reserved only for away teams scoring and royal deaths.

"Correction - Norwich's second goal was actually scored by Stephen Hughes."

A great game. Even the half-time entertainment was of a much higher quality than we have become used to sitting through. No cheerleaders, men in furry animal costumes or daft contrived games involving a 'lucky' fan attempting to kick a ball through a hole in a piece of wood.

Instead Mick Channon, who played with great distinction for both clubs, was awarded an honorary degree on the pitch complete with gown and mortar board.

You see - us football types can appreciate the higher-brow side elements of life in that desperate gap of 15 minutes between halves.

Soggy, Soggy, Soggy

2009-11-16T17:13:00.003Z

Norwich City 2-0 Tranmere Rovers

Who would be a goalkeeper?

This was one of those wet, windy and wild days which has players dodging the odd plastic bag caught in a gust, fans using programmes as make-shift umbrellas and commentators getting all precious about their notes getting soggy.

Norwich 'keeper Fraser Forster spent much of this game peering through the rain as City struggled to break down a resolute, determined Tranmere side. At one point the visitors did mount an excellent Chris Shuker inspired counter attack. He played the ball into the path of team mate Paul McLaren who was on the 6-yard line. It looked a certain goal. Forster though, bounced across and virtually clawed the ball off the goal line. A magnificent save.

At the same end in the second half one of the Tranmere defenders was harshly judged to have used his hand to equal effect to block an Adam Drury shot. An hour gone and City won a penalty. Hoolahan scored and Gary Doherty got the second ten minutes from time.

Appropriate that those two players should score on the day that the East Anglian Children's Hospice got the chance to sponsor the club for a day. I interviewed both players at the charities Snetterton HQ back in April. Footballers get a lot of criticism in the media for their off-field antics but the amount they do for good causes is often conveniently forgotten. Hoolahan left EACH that day covered in green paint after well and truly joining in with play time. It isn't often people manage to get that close to the impishly skillful Hoolahan.

They DO Hand Out Medals in November

2009-11-16T17:03:00.002Z

Swindon Town 0-0 Norwich City

Norwich win 5-3 on penalties

Like Grant Holt and Simon Lappin, I sat out this one as the canaries progressed to the area semi-finals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. A grim goalless draw was followed by a penalty shoot-out success.

I spent a pleasant evening hosting the EDP Active Norfolk Sports Awards back in Norwich alongside former boxer Jon Thaxton.

As the final applause faded at about 8.30pm I realised that when you are somebody who covers the canaries you are always on duty.

With the award winners still having their pictures taken, I was approached by a couple of members of the audience. They were Norwich fans and knew that crunch JPT clash would by now be into the second half. Despite the fact I had spent the previous hour standing on a stage in front of them, with no sign of X-Factor-style-dry ice or clever mirrors, they still expected me to be on top of all things canary.

"How are City getting on?"

The responsibility was too much, it was clear I was going to have to find out. So a dash through the photographers and into a position where I could get a phone signal followed. I returned to inform them that it was 0-0. In this interactive age, this was football on demand.

Paulton Foiled

2009-11-10T15:16:00.004Z

Paulton Rovers 0-7 Norwich City

It was one of those days when wanting Norwich City to win had you well and truly in the minority. They all wanted to be there on the off chance that this could be one of the FA Cup's biggest upsets of all time. Paulton had to bridge a gap of 119 league places, their average home league crowd is 235, City's 100 times higher than that, their manager Andrew Jones sells flowers for a living but he found himself just yards away from Champions League winner Paul Lambert. There was the traditional pre-match downpour and the cup cliches were completed by one Paulton fan who had made his own model FA Cup out of foil.

No matter how excited I have been by a match I have never had the inclination to make my own model trophy - I wonder what happens to them when the dream doesn't quite come true?

Norwich City spoiled the fun of all those wanting a shock. Grant Holt got 2, Wes Hoolahan 1 but it Chris Martin was the biggest cup scrooge, hitting four goals. With victory safe, Holt and Simon Lappin then cynically set about getting booked for the fifth time each this season. Funnily enough they managed it and will now miss the Johnstone's Paint Trophy trip to Swindon, rather than a league game. The twinkle in Paul Lambert's eye when asked about the yellow cards (Lappin for kicking the ball away and Holt for blocking the Paulton 'keeper after failing to rile the ref by arguing and kicking the ball away himself) suggested a plan had come together,although this will never be admitted publicly I am sure.

This was a day in which I experienced football at all levels. From the Paulton part-timers to Trevor Brooking's seat and then a long delay on the M4 which caused us to arrive at South Mimms services in time to queue behind Peter Crouch (in full Spurs tracksuit) fresh from playing against Sunderland. Perhaps it is an omen. Will the 'beanpole striker', as you have to call him, be waiting along the canaries metaphorical road to Wembley, rather than the actual one? Will have to get past Carlisle or Morecambe first. Whoever wins that first round replay, it's going to open up several more opportunities for celebrity spotting at service stations - we are away again!

Stars on Stripes

2009-11-02T16:57:00.003Z

Stockport County 1-3 Norwich City

You know how airlines sometimes overbook flights? Well it turns out hotels do it too. A 9.30pm arrival on a Friday night in Stockport is just as glamorous as it sounds, especially when you are turned away from your reserved bed for the night because of a mistake on the hotel's part. They grudgingly helped us find another one in the end.

While we were demanding to see the duty manager in a hotel reception, the combined weight of the Sale Sharks and Gloucester rugby teams were slugging out a Guiness Premiership rugby game at Edgeley Park. No surprise then that the poor old pitch hadn't quite recovered from the ordeal the next day.

A stripe of dead grass ran the length of the pitch at the ground a couple of yards in from one touchline. It almost looked as if the ground was being prepared for next cricket season.

As well as the poor pitch, the Stockport press box provided its own challenge. The fact that each of the desks had a slight overhang at the back meant that every time you left your seat you ran a serious risk of cracking your head on the table of the journalist behind. There would be no jumping out of your seat here, unless one fancied a stylish Terry Butcher head-bandage.

It wasn't the best of games, but two for Grant Holt and a Wes Hoolahan penalty saw Norwich through, the quality of the match best summed up by the fact that Stockport's goal came off the backside of striker Peter Thompson.

Where's Paulton?

2009-10-25T20:55:00.003Z

Norwich City 1-0 Swindon Town

How can it be possible after all these years that there are still English teams I have never heard of?

We knew relegation to League One would mean Norwich turning out on FA Cup first round day for the first time in half a century and we knew there would be a good chance of facing non-league opposition, maybe even local side Lowestoft Town.

I joined the draw late as it was being made on TV and saw on the screen that Norwich had drawn Paulton Rovers away. Now that's a proper cup draw! Early inspection of the internet suggests they may switch the tie thus denying us a taste of the Southern League on first round day. I am already wondering what the (if there are any) broadcasting facilities will be like.

As for the Swindon game, well it wasn't the most memorable of all time but Chris Martin's goal was enough to send Norwich up to fifth. My personal triumph came from covering a game featuring a player called Kevin Amankwaah without any unsavoury on air incidents.

You're Not Laughing Anymore

2009-10-25T20:42:00.003Z

Leeds United 2-1 Norwich City

Recent games against Charlton and Gillingham and reminded Norwich fans of what a great thrill a last minute goal can be. Here was a proof that letting one in can have you cursing your luck long into the night.

It was 1-1, deep into stoppage time when Fraser Forster scuffed a goal kick straight at the feet of Jermaine Beckford. He scored, Norwich lost but won a fair few admirers for the way they played.

It is always interesting watching your own team on television and there is always that fear that if they lose or play badly it will be somehow worse because it is in front of everybody else. Norwich's reputation for chopping and changing managers clearly goes before them. At one point on Sky Paul Lambert was captioned as 'Norwich caretaker manager'.

Forster need not worry - he joins a good list of Norwich goalkeepers who have made these blunders and most of them appear to have happened on live television. Bryan Gunn's famous air kick at Portman Road in 1996 for example. Robert Green may now be an England 'keeper but he was embarrassed himself on live TV by rolling the ball out in front of him, not realising Nottingham Forest's David Johnson was standing behind him, to this day Green does the full 360 before letting a ball go.

Ipswich Town still haven't won this season. A few Town fans were keen to celebrate Forster's mistake almost 24 hours later when Look East presented their sports news from a Suffolk pub. One fan made a gesture not seen on TV since those Nescafe adverts with Gareth Hunt in and others chanted 'scum, scum, scum' as the reporter tried to link to the goals footage from the Leeds game.

If only the cameras had been trained on those same fans later that evening when Ipswich, yes you've guessed it, let in a last minute goal. Their faces would have been a picture as Nathan Ellington netted for Malky Mackay's Watford at Portman Road to make it 1-1.

The Drury's Out

2009-10-11T13:06:00.003+01:00

Carlisle United 0-1 Norwich City

This was the badge of honour fixture for Norwich City fans. The trip to Carlisle had become the one often used to sum up what relegation to League One actually meant. The best part of six hours each way - but worth it because Wes Hoolahan scored the only goal.

Not everybody undertook the full 12-hour round trip though. The lengths some people will go for a more comfortable journey is remarkable.

Adam Drury's wife gave birth to baby Isla the night before the game. He was then flown up to Carlisle, along with Delia Smith, on the morning of the match. The fixture list only came out in June and even with my limited scientific and mathematical abilities I can tell there is no way Drury can be accused of going through all this just to avoid a coach trip to Cumbria. He played very well.

The whole trip got off to a bizarre start when I realised I had managed to book a hotel for the Friday night which was hosting a line dancing convention. It meant Neil Adams and I significantly reduced the average age of the guests but also that we were reluctant to join the queue at breakfast for fear of having to do a Billy Ray Cyrus dance.

Our commentary position was in the back row of the stand, always a slightly worrying moment when you know you have to be critical of the home side within ear shot of some of their fans. The only tense moment was after the game when a red-faced Cumbrian man asked whether we 'got referees like that every week.' I actually did not think the ref had had a bad game but I was too cowardly to take that up with the angry man.

Norwich City are now in the play-off places. I cannot remember the last time we were in the top six of anything.

You Missed a Bit

2009-10-09T19:42:00.003+01:00

Giilingham 0-1 Norwich City

Norwich City's Johnstone's Paint Trophy adventure continues thanks to Cody McDonald's second half winner.

That's all I can tell you because I wasn't there. It was the first Norwich game I had missed since March 2007 due to my new commitment presenting BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show. Midweek away games are going to be a step too far for me.

I had always been a little uncomfortable with covering games in the JPT. Not because of any lofty opinions of following a team too good to be playing in such a twee competition, mainly my lack of DIY abilities means I break out into a cold sweat at the sheer mention of any product you might find in B&Q.

I did listen to BBC Radio Norfolk's coverage, with the excellent Phil Parry standing in for me. It was actually quite refreshing to take on the roll of supporter for the night once again with my ear pressed up against the nearest radio willing City to score.

Some Picture Perfect Goals

2009-10-09T19:30:00.003+01:00

Norwich City 5-1 Bristol Rovers

What a week. At one point there Norwich City had scored a total of 8 goals in an hour's football. First half strikes from Chris Martin, Wes Hoolahan (pen) and Grant Holt (2), the second of which was a very special individual effort, had the match won by half-time. Jamie Cureton then added a last minute strike for good measure.

We were joined in the BBC Radio Norfolk commentary box by a nice man called Norman.

He had won the chance to sit next to myself and Neil Adams by bidding for the prize in an auction. His day job is to illustrate bird books. I shuffled in my seat all afternoon and just about managed to get through it without asking him what he was like at drawing canaries.

Commentators tend to make dreadful hosts. What would you think if you had paid good money to spend an afternoon with someone who then did not talk to you for the best part of two hours? Thankfully Norwich City stepped in and entertained Norman with five very good goals so I don't think he was that bothered that he had to spend most of his afternoon sitting quietly.

Cafu and Biscuits

2009-09-30T14:54:00.003+01:00

Norwich City 4-0 Leyton Orient

"Mickey Spillane was like Cafu tonight." I honestly heard that comment just after the final whistle at Carrow Road. It shows how desperate Norwich City fans are to watch a winning team, they are ready to get thoroughly carried away.

This was 0-0 after 75 minutes. Orient were down to ten men and holding out but patience was a virtue. Sub Chris Martin scored with a fine finish and within six minutes Grant Holt and Spillane had entered their contenders for goal of the game. Jamie Cureton, another sub, made it 4 - a pleasing moment as one of football's genuine nice guys, who hasn't had an easy couple seasons, got his first of the campaign.

At half-time I popped into a room just behind the BBC Radio Norfolk commentary position for the usual cup of coffee and a biscuit. I felt a tap on my right shoulder. I turned round and there was no-one there so I continued my conversation only to hear from behind me.

"You'd be a rubbish full back!"

Bill Punton, a Norwich winger in the late 50's and early 60's who now works as a non-league football pundit on our radio station was standing there beaming.

"You turned the wrong way, I'd have got past you easily." he continued in his chirpy Scottish accent.

I had not realised playing in the back four was such a 24-hour-a-day occupation. You cannot even stand near a plate of biscuits without a winger attempting to test your reactions - even one now entitled to a free bus pass.

I am not nothing like Cafu when it comes to defending digestives.

Pinching a Point (and Two Tickets)

2009-09-30T14:28:00.003+01:00

Gillingham 1-1 Norwich City

Having taken over as BBC Radio Norfolk's Breakfast Show presenter I was coming into this game on the back of a week of 4am starts. It needed to be entertaining or I could have become the first ever commentator (I assume) to actually fall asleep during a game.

When I handed back to the studio at the end of the game I was actually quivering, not through fatigue, but the thrill of Darel Russell's 94th minute equaliser. The canaries played most of the game with ten men when Fraser Forster was sent off and Simeon Jackson slotted the resulting penalty past debutant 'keeper Declan Rudd. A man light, a teenager in goal and 1-0 down. Recent Norwich City experience has conditioned me to expect a 3 or 4 nil defeat in such circumstances but they fought back very, very well.

I wasn't alone, the fans on the temporary away stand at Priestfield - the sort of thing you might see on the 18th hole at The Open - went so crazy I was later told by a supporter there was some serious concern the structure may actually tip up.

My moment of realisation that I had become uncontrollably excited by a draw at Gillingham was shaken off by my feeling of good fortune when I saw the Norwich players being forced to take an ice bath in the open air as we waited for post-match interviews. They taking it in turns to be dipped in a paddling pool of freezing water. How can that be good for you?

There was one slightly hairy moment when I didn't think I was going to even get in. The press reception at Priestfield turned out to be an unmanned wooden desk. Someone had clearly abandoned their station but when it remained a staff-free zone after a few moments I began to get restless and a quick investigation revealed the necessary press passes were indeed just sitting there on the table. So I carefully reached over and sorted through them until I found the two BBC Radio Norfolk passes. Or that was the plan.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" Gillingham coach Mark Robson (I didn't recognise him, but a quick scan of the kit sponsorship page of the programme later solved the mystery) had walked into the tiny reception to see some bloke with both feet off the floor leaning over a desk to help himself to two tickets. I was all ready to get all official with him and produce ID cards etc but thankfully Robson had a League One match to prepare for and actually was not that bothered at my brazen act of ticket thievery. As soon as a second member of Gills staff walked in, I was off the hook as some football style unfathomable but very loud male banter ensued between Robson and his colleague.

What Goes in the Tunnel.......

2009-09-22T15:33:00.002+01:00

Norwich City 2-2 Charlton Athletic

People who don't like football will never experience that last-minute equaliser feeling. Norwich City fans did here thanks to Grant Holt.

There really isn't anything like an important last minute strike. Paul Lambert set off up the touchline, running half the length of the pitch when this most deserved of goals went in.

The canaries were 2-0 down to league leaders and unbeaten Charlton but Hoolahan and Holt scored in the final minute of each half. It was a spicy game, Charlton's Nicky Bailey was involved in an off-the-ball incident with Holt just before the break. The ref spoke to him but obviously hadn't seen anything as he didn't even book Bailey.

Even those most polite of football supporters in the Geoffrey Watling City Stand were up on their feet in anger at what happened. If ref Steve Tanner was a Carrow Road regular he would have known from the uprising of the ground's and perhaps even the game's most demure fans that something must have been amiss.

So an exciting afternoon watched by 24 thousand plus people - but it was what they didn't see that dominated my thoughts after the game.

I overheard a half-time conversation in the cue for a cup of tea about a scuffle between players as they went down the tunnel at the interval hot on the heels of that Bailey incident. Something clearly happened, Tanner told a reporter afterwards he saw 'two separate incidents' but we may never know what.

Footballers do not discuss in public what goes on during that long walk back to the dressing room. It is their manor and nothing to do with the rest of us. I asked both Paul Lambert and Grant Holt what had happened in the post-match interviews. "I didn't see anything" was the general tone from both. The glint in their eyes suggested that may not have been the whole truth but that is what football people do.

MK Done

2009-09-21T14:27:00.002+01:00

MK Dons 2-1 Norwich City

On the day of this game The Guardian newspaper was giving away a free copy of a classic Roy of the Rovers comic. The perfect pre-match reading to inspire you for some Monday night League One action.

I don't think I was the only one. Chris Martin fired Norwich into the lead after 16 seconds with the first shot of the game. Roy Race would have been proud of it. If you want to be pedantic about it, it was actually 17 seconds but the little yellow plastic stopwatch that we have relied upon for several seasons now had it at 16. That's good enough for me, whatever Sky Sports fancy equipment might have said.

The canaries were then battling against the odds as Adam Drury and Stephen Hughes, two key players limped off before half-time. Defender Michael Nelson completed the injury hat-trick early in the second half and it was about then the comic-book magic dust wore off.

In a similar situation Melchester Rovers would have held out for a heroic 1-0 victory. Norwich City didn't. A free-kick and then a controversial penalty conceded by Chris Martin himself consigned them to defeat.

Norwich City fans are rightly proud of their record of virtually selling out most home games but at Stadium:MK, as it's annoyingly called, there was evidence of some of the advantages of not selling all your tickets.

As the rain lashed down early in the second half the fans in the front few rows of the stand we were sitting in began to feel the full brunt of the weather. No Steve McClaren style brolly for them, they simply moved back five or six rows, giving themselves the pick of several empty and much drier seats.

A Dull Moment

2009-09-07T11:24:00.002+01:00

Norwich City 0-0 Walsall

'There's never a dull moment at Carrow Road.' I have probably said that a hundred times this season, using it as the default way to react to record home defeats, manager sackings and outfield players going in goal so I probably needed this.

It was a poor game. Walsall have now drawn three successive games 0-0. I am not going to use that as a stick with which to beat them, they more than deserved this point. City did not really look like breaking them down.

I noticed one woman sitting near me spent most of the first half reading the matchday programme. It was that sort of game. The rush for the half-time pie queue started a little earlier and was a little busier than usual as the inevitability that this would end 0-0 set in.

Paul Lambert, midway through the first half, reacted to one mis-placed pass by ripping off his tracksuit top in a kind of 'I really mean business now' kind of way. I now know what our new manager wears under his black tracky top.

It's not a vest, it's not a t-shirt and it isn't even just his bare skin. He had another tracksuit top on, which looked to me exactly the same design as the one he had just taken off. No wonder he was warm.

Next time I feel the urge to splutter about there 'never being a dull moment.......' I am going to remember this game.

Painting the Window

2009-09-02T14:50:00.002+01:00

Norwich City 1-0 Brentford

The Johnstone's Paint Trophy and the closure of the transfer window. What a day it promised to be.

Sky Sports News has become appointment viewing on deadline day. The football authorities spoiled their fun a little bit by making the window close at 5pm - depriving us of an extra seven hours of reporters standing outside telling us that David James' car was still parked up at the Portsmouth training ground.

SSN still managed to rise to the occasion by cutting to Big Ben just as it chimed five times. Despite the frothing transfer frenzy and the almost apocalyptic site of the nations most famous clock tower the world did not end at 5pm on Tuesday September 1st 2009 but Leon McKenzie did sign for Charlton.

As a fan and reporter you spend days like this desperately checking websites to make sure you're not missing anything. Would Gary Doherty leave Norwich? Would Wes Hoolahan leave Norwich? Would Norwich sign a new player? No, no and indeed no.

So it was onto the Johnstone's Paint Trophy for the canaries first ever match in the competition.You could choose to see it as another landmark as to how far Norwich had fallen or think of it as the best chance of a trip to Wembley and just make the most of it.

Carrow Road was surreal. The closed River End made it feel a little like a reserve game but the fans, as they always do, really did come through for the team. More than 12 and a half thousand turned up to see Chris Martin's goal.

To put that into perspective, the next highest attendance in the competition on the same night was just four and a half thousand at MK Dons and it was a bigger gate than last week's Sunderland tie in the Carling Cup.

It was a night of Carrow Road firsts. Not only the arrival of JPT action but defender Jens Berthel Askou managed to smash a clearance over the roof of the Jarrold Stand, the tallest at the ground.

I am now preparing to phone the press office at Norwich City and request they find out how high the Jarrold Stand actually is. They'll love being asked that. Mind you, the transfer window's closed for now so they won't have any speculation to deal with.

Nelson's Journey

2009-08-30T17:52:00.003+01:00

Hartlepool United 0-2 Norwich City

"It's always very blustery, even on a sunny day." That's what Norwich defender Michael Nelson told the local media on the eve of returning to Victoria Park as a canary.

That job with the Hartlepool tourist board may have gone forever but Nelson was spot on. He enjoyed playing against his former club and even opened the scoring with an acrobatic volley. I don't mean this as disrespectful but I had to have a couple of looks before confirming him as the scorer during commentary - you just don't expect a centre half to do that.

Stephen Hughes made it two in the second half to seal a deserved win for a well organised City side.

We may only have visited a tiny percentage of the League One ground so far, but I don't think we'll experience a louder PA system than this one. Perhaps they turn it up to 11 to compete with those high winds but they do put it to novel use.

Hartlepool fan Phil Dunn was a guest on BBC Radio Norfolk's The Scrimmage last Thursday and revealed the club's anthem was the Rolf classic 'Two Little Boys.' They make the most of it too - blasting out that tune pre-match so loud that it gets stuck in your head for days after the game. It's an enjoyable tune but I'm not sure it's quite the intimidating force to crush the spirits of away fans.

At half-time ex-Premier League referee Jeff Winter provides an open goal for supporters who enjoy a good pantomime boo by hosting the half-time entertainment. It turns out that Winter now presents a football phone-in show up in the North East where he has become something of a minor celebrity. Give me Neil Adams any day.

Cody's Sunderland Wonderland

2009-08-26T13:25:00.003+01:00

Norwich City 1-4 Sunderland

Although it's now five seasons since Norwich City were in the Premier League I have always secretly hoped that there can't possibly be that much difference between us and most of the teams in the top flight. Then you get nights like this.

I don't know what was more scary: The pace, speed and clinical finishing of a side who, let's face it, aren't one of the best in the Premier League or the fact that it isn't that long since Norwich and Sunderland were taking each other on as close rivals in the league.

Steve Bruce's side deserved their win, but that's not to say it was all bad from a Norwich point of view.

I thought we had already seen it all at Carrow Road this season but I was forgetting something. An outfield player in goal.

The game was up, 4-1 with just a few moments to go when Michael Spillane was sent off for fouling Frazier Campbell. Premier League players are so quick these days that they don't just stop when they are fouled, they carry on until they come into contact with something solid. In this case it was poor old Ben Alnwick's head.

So a defender red carded and a goalkeeper helped off with a bloody nose with all substitutions made. Step forward, or rather step back Cody McDonald, from striker to stand-in goalkeeper. It made for a great atmosphere at the end as every catch, however simple, was greeted like Gordon Banks at his best.

A far cry from Upton Park 24-hours later. As I write this the media is full of the dreadful violence which ruined the West Ham/Millwall Carling Cup tie last night. The same round in the same competition as the Cody McDonald goalkeeping fun. I know what I consider to be the 'proper' football experience.

I have always been disturbed by the number of books in the sport section of shops written by 'reformed' hooligans and films along a similar line. Yes, there is an unsavoury side to watching the game which is always seized upon by those who like to write off football supporters as a bunch of beer-swilling trouble makers but the vast majority just go to enjoy themselves. That's not to say they do not care about their team, I just hope this doesn't lead to everybody getting tarred with the same brush.

For me and I think most other people who go to matches, the true enjoyment of football has always been more about cheering a striker who has to put on the goalkeeping gloves and organise a wall to defend a free kick than wanting to fight anybody.

The Wisdom of the New Manager

2009-08-26T13:08:00.003+01:00

Norwich City 5-2 Wycombe Wanderers

Say what you like about Paul Lambert, he knows where the nets are at Carrow Road. That's 12 scored by his teams on the ground this season.

Norwich fans have seen so many new managers in recent years arrive with a wave on the pitch to rapturous applause before packing the contents of their desk into a big cardboard box within a few months. They could have been forgiven for not having that start-of-a-new-era buzz as the latest incumbent of the Carrow Road home dugout took his seat for the first time.

Lambert managed to get the fans going with his team selection. Six changes, including surprise places in the starting line-up for Jamie Cureton and 18-year-old midfielder Korey Smith.

It did the the trick. Grant Holt, young-pup Smith and Jon Otsemobor had City 3 up before the usual defensive wobble as Wycombe got back to 3-2. The second Wycombe goal came less than 30 seconds into the second half after they had been very late returning to the pitch after the break. I would love to have seen the ref allow Norwich just to kick off anyway but I suppose that would have caused more problems than it solved.

Jens Berthel Askou and Holt made sure of the win with well taken second half goals.

I had found out, by overhearing a conversation in the gents at half-time (now that's journalism), that Holt had woken up on the morning of the game with an infected wisdom tooth. The man who was made skipper by Lambert confirmed my little bit of information gained at the Carrow Road latrines after the game.

Then I wished I had never found it out.

I had an infected wisdom tooth in May and basically spent three days in bed because I couldn't stand the pain. He scored twice and turned in a brilliant performance against Wycombe. I am sticking to the assumption that mine was much worse than his.

At Least He Knows What He's in For

2009-08-20T18:06:00.005+01:00

Ten days into the new season, it's probably worth a quick recap.

Norwich City, full of optimsim on the opening day of the season, manage to lose 7-1 to Colchester United, their heaviest ever home defeat. They recover some pride with a 4-0 away win in the League Cup but, just as the dust is starting to settle, the manager is sacked 24-hours before the second league game. If you were writing a script for Dream Team, the now defunct Sky One Hollyoaks style football soap opera, you would probably be accused of an over-active imagination if you came up with the next story line. On the morning of the third league game the manager of the team which inflicted that 7-1 humiliation crosses the floor and becomes Norwich City boss.

At 8.45am my mobile goes and notice is given that a press conference unveiling the latest Norwich City manager will take place at 10am. What follows is a replay of the John Cleese film Clockwise in which he has to race to get to a conference in Norwich. I get stuck behind several comedy vehicles including two tractors, a learner driver and a slow-moving pensioner on some of Norfolk's finest country roads and make the press conference, arriving breathless, with 10 minutes to spare.

Paul Lambert is named as the new Norwich City manager.

He will take over tomorrow and join the rest of us in the stands at Griffin Park for tonight's League One game at Brentford. Playing in front of the new gaffer, surely that must inspire a first league win..........

Brentford 2-1 Norwich City

But then again this is Norwich we're talking about. Paul Lambert's probably not used to watching his team from the stands. I don't know how helpful he found the above sign but for anyone experiencing a football match for the first time at Griffin Park at least there are instructions on how to behave.

The tight ground may not be the biggest but the atmosphere is good and loud. There are probably two main reasons for the this. Firstly, Griffin Park nestles snugly among rows and rows of terrace houses meaning the crowd's right on top of the action. Secondly, it's the only ground in the UK with a pub at each corner. It's impossible to get in without having to pass at least one of them.

The game itself offers another reminder of how far Norwich are from being the promotion contenders the fans want them to be and chief executive David McNally says they need to be. McNally used the importance of a shot at going up as one of the main reasons for sacking Bryan Gunn.

An even first half is followed by a second half in which the canaries never get going. One header from a long throw and a thumping free kick straight through the City wall but The Bees 2-0 up. Owain Tudur-Jones pulls one back in stoppage time and Gary Doherty almost heads in a thoroughly undeserved equaliser even later in stoppage time. That's one point from a possible nine in the league and Mr Lambert leaves the ground (quietly) pondering what he has to do to become the man who can finally turn Norwich City's fortunes.

Just 96% To Go

2009-08-15T19:39:00.007+01:00

Exeter City 1-1 Norwich City

This was a match that couldn't end soon enough. That's not to say it was dull, although it was by no means a classic. All anyone really wanted to hear about at St. James' Park was the surprise sacking of Bryan Gunn and who might be the next man in the City hot seat.

Sure, the canaries fans cheered when Jens Berthel Askou headed in the opening goal of the game early in the second half and of course they were worried when Exeter equalised through substitute Richard Logan and went on to look the most likely winners but this match really just got in the way.

After the game we were to get the first comment from the club on what had gone on over the past 24-hours and what we could expect to happen next. Chief Executive David McNally gave a thoughtful interview - one in which you felt he was doing his best not to let anything slip. He did point out that already we have had about 4 per cent of the league season. I had never thought of it like that before. Does he break his life down into minute statistics? I have visions of him getting a cup of coffee on arriving in his office in the morning and thinking 'well that's the first 1 per cent of today done.'

The one definitive was that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will not be the next manager. I didn't think he would - but some media outlets were reporting confidently that talks had already taken place and that JFH's arrival was imminent. The former Chelsea striker's name had come out of the blue but we know by now that things can still be true even when they sound unlikely.

The old fashioned Exeter ground provided one of those awkward commentary challenges: A pillar blocking the view of one of the goals. I wonder how many moments of brilliance haven't got the write up or the reaction they deserve in the media because they were struck from behind that red piece of metal?

During the first half I saw Norwich's captain Gary Doherty running towards the pillar as the ball dropped from the sky. When he appeared the other side he had his head in hands. I guessed he must have headed the ball over the bar.

As the second half kicked off I was approached by a man who stuck the back of his hand in front of my eyes to show me some numbers he had scrawled on his skin in biro. Was this man trying to give me his phone number? Was this an unexpected look at the chatting-up technique of Devon's gay community? I gave him my best Englishman-abroad-confused-I-don't-understand-look. He showed me the numbers again. I was going to have to let him down gently so I removed my headphones:

Me: "What?"

Him: "That's the official attendance."

I suppose it's good for the rainforests.

Gunn. Gone.

2009-08-14T18:38:00.003+01:00

It's 4.45 on a Friday afternoon. The train continues to make steady progress somewhere between London Paddington and Exeter St. Davids as Neil Adams, my BBC Radio Norfolk co-commentator and I, make our way down for tomorrow's League One match at St. James' Park. My phone starts ringing, it's work. "Bryan Gunn's just been sacked."

Wow.

Last Saturday after the 7-1 mauling by Colchester or even Monday morning and I could have understood it. Since then though there's been a 4-0 away win and in exactly 24-hours the vidiprinter will be carrying details of tomorrow's result.

So what's happened? I spoke to Gunn on the phone on Thursday afternoon. With the team having stayed in the South West after the Yeovil game it was a call arranged through the club's media department and our only chance of the usual pre-match chat. He was in good form, talking both on and off tape, about players fitness ahead of the Exeter game and how the extended stay down south had helped the squad bond. He is either the greatest Scottish actor since Sean Connery or he had no idea this was coming.

Chaos ensued on board the 1506 to Exeter St.Davids as I did a live phone interview on BBC Radio Norfolk while pressed up against the luggage compartment of a busy commuter train. People were staring, clearly wondering why this strange bloke was talking in such a loud telephone voice about somebody getting the sack. A chap wearing a Newcastle United replica shirt looked on, I would like to think with a look of sympathy in his eyes, possibly pleased the heat had been taken off his favourite football team for a little bit longer.

Mobile phones and trains don't mix and the inevitable tunnel meant my radio appearance was cut short.

You cannot help but feel for Bryan Gunn. A man who cared deeply about Norwich City Football Club and found the unexpected opportunity to manage the club just too good to resist. The fairytale version would have had him keeping the canaries in the Championship but football has always been more Viv Anderson than Hans Christian Andersen and down they went.

He was not everybody's choice for the job after that but having been given it on a full-time basis in mid-May and then allowed to spend freely enough to sign 12 players he cannot have expected he would have been out of a job before the Premier League boys had even got underway.

One of his problems was always going to be the fact he got the job before changes were made at boardroom level. Norwich City started the season with a chairman and chief executive who had played no part in him getting the job. Experience tells us that the sort of people who take those jobs at football clubs have got where they are because they like to make an impact and show who is in control.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist however. First and foremost it always comes down to results. Without Norwich 1-7 Colchester nobody would have had any need to make such a ruthless decision, even if they were waiting for an excuse. The angry Carrow Road reaction last weekend, not to mention Gunn having a season ticket thrown at him, were powerful scenes even for those of us used to Norwich City upheaval, not to mention for those experiencing the place for the first time from the Director's Box.

The worry was that by taking the Norwich City manager's job Bryan Gunn was placing his legendary status with the club's supporters under threat. I would like to think that the best part of 500 appearances, not to mention countless hours of work within the community will always keep him in the hearts of the City faithful. That's where he deserves to be.

Football though will always be brutal and not sentimental. Relegation, record home defeats and revenue - the three R's that were, in the end, too big for even a legend to overcome.

Feed The Horse and He Will Score

2009-08-12T09:56:00.003+01:00

Yeovil Town 0-4 Norwich City

Only the Carling Cup? Maybe, but Norwich City needed this. Would Bryan Gunn make wholesale changes to the side freshly battered by Colchester or would those same players be given the chance to prove a point? Perhaps predictably, he went somewhere in between - 5 changes.

Ben Alnwick replaced Theoklitos after his hapless debut, Michael Spillane impressed at right back, Jens Berthel Askou played solidly at centre back, 17-year-old Tom Adeyemi belied his tender years with a fine display in midfield and Cody McDonald was, well, Cody McDonald, chasing everything, the poor bloke did everything but score.

The real star was his strike partner. A second half hat-trick from Grant Holt helped restore a bit of pride. This bear of a man is so much more than your average League One target man on this evidence. He completed his hat-trick with a sublime 20-yard effort and in the build up to his second, he ran from the halfway line to the edge of the box with defenders bouncing off him. All the makings of a fan's favourite.

That's not to mention a manager's favourite. In praising Holt's work rate after the game Gunn revealed in his post-match interview that the striker had recently taken on the nickname 'The Horse' in the Norwich dressing room. At least I assume it was his work rate which bought him that pet name and not some other yet to be discovered attribute.

After Gunn I got to interview Holt. He's an imposing figure close-up, as the bruised Yeovil centre backs will testify, and I was grappling with a dilemma all the way through our chat: Should I ask him about this new nickname, just made public by his manager?

What if he didn't like being called a horse? What if this was a behind-his-back nickname that he wasn't supposed to hear? Even if he did know about it, would he really want everybody else finding out?

In the end I braved it in the hope that a hat-trick in just his second game for the club must have left him in a decent mood. There was a slight pause before he answered, a tense moment for me.

"I just hope the manager thinks I'm a good horse and not a bad one."

Phew! I leave Yeovil in one piece and that cautious optimism about what lies ahead slowly returns. Very cautious, mind.

Laughing Stock

2009-08-11T15:37:00.002+01:00

"We're the laughing stock of the football world at the moment."

That particular quote does not come from one of the Norwich City supporters still thoroughly depressed by the debacle that was 7-1 to Colchester at Carrow Road. That was the sentence uttered to the media on Monday morning by the team's captain Gary Doherty.

Nothing wrong with him saying it, he is right, but the fact he did shows why the Carling Cup match at Yeovil tonight has become rather bigger than it sounds.

A gubbing like that dished out by Colchester on Saturday may have done some real lasting damage. Tonight is the team's opportunity to prove that it hasn't.

I was interviewed by BBC Somerset's breakfast show this morning, and while they were more kind than perhaps they needed to be, it was clear they are rather licking their lips at the prospect of these beleaguered canaries coming into town.

My colleagues from 'ciderspace' (it's the new fangled way of saying the West Country) were particularly taken by the story of Michael Theoklitos. His debut as Norwich City goalkeeper will always be talked about, no matter what he goes on to do. Whenever England teams come up against Australian sportsmen they never seem to do things like concede five goals within the first forty minutes of their debut. Every catch or adequately dealt with backpass was met with sarcastic cheers from his own supporters on Saturday. I will say this for him - the early evidence suggests he does have that bit of Aussie sportsman about him after all - he was willing to be interviewed less than 48-hours after the aforementioned calamity.

Will he keep his place tonight? I really don't know.

I just hope Newcastle United fans are grateful for us manfully coming in and taking the 'football's laughing stock' dunce's cap from them for a few days.

Up The Bracket

2009-08-09T19:59:00.005+01:00

Norwich City 1-7 Colchester United

You really could not make this stuff up.

2.59pm: 25,000 Norwich City supporters are up on their feet, waving flags given out for free by the club sponsors and generally creating a very good atmosphere. The pain of relegation from The Championship had finally subsided. Three months of thoughtful new signings, changes at boardroom level and very careful PR by the club seemed to have done the trick. The supporters were back on side, every seat in the ground was sold and there really was a feeling that today marked the start of a new era in the life of Norwich City Football Club.

3.23pm: Good will gone. It's already 4-0 to Colchester and two fans are being led away having run half the length of the field along the touchline. One stopping to throw is barely-used season ticket in the direction of Bryan Gunn. By half-time it is 5-0 and angry disbelief hangs in the air.

It ends up not just being embarrassing, humiliating or ignominious but Norwich City's biggest ever home defeat.

Two facts underline this: Firstly the manager pays tribute to the club's stewards in his post-match interview. Bosses are always so keen to stress the positives but this is the first time I have ever heard security staff at a football ground praised ahead of any aspect of what happened on the pitch.

Then there is the painful addition of brackets to our scoreline on Sky Sports News. Norwich City 1-7 Colchester United is not enough for them. They add S-E-V-E-N in capitals after the figure 7. Having to spell numbers out is never good news. It usually means you are writing a cheque for something expensive, say for example a new Norwich City season ticket.

One More Sleep

2009-08-07T19:07:00.003+01:00

So the new season is virtually here. Forget Christmas -this is the most wonderful time of the year if you like your football.

It always reminds me a little of those old black and white films from when man was trying to take to the skies before the Wright brothers came along and ruined it.

A football squad is like one of those amazingly intricate wooden contraptions that were built in the early part of the 20th century. A good few months in creation and we are about to find out whether the maiden flight will be successful.

Sadly, the last few Norwich City prototypes have hardly left terra firma before crashing down to earth and breaking into several pieces. Like those early would-be aviators your football supporter is back every August maintaining the belief that this brand new design will work. We're about to find out.

Confidence seems high around the club. As an interviewer you get used to the take-each-game-as-it-comes bland media trained response but every player I have spoken to on tape over the past few days has nailed their colours to the mast. We have what it takes, we are good enough and we should be promoted. A refreshing message.

League One has its mysteries. The truth is we are playing teams we barely know how to spell. I have seen Wickham Wanderers mentioned and somebody who should know better (but will remain nameless) recently texted me about a trip to Yoevill. Spelling wasn't a problem when it was Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United - but we have moved on. We might just learn a lot over the next few months and even improve our grasp of the English language.

Curious Orange

2009-08-03T12:22:00.005+01:00

Norwich City 3-2 Wigan Athletic

The last of the friendlies and it means Norwich City have come through the pre-season unbeaten. Isn't it amazing how three letters can take the gloss off a sentence? It would feel so much better to write the opening of this entry again minus the 'pre'.

This was a good way to finish against Premier League opposition. Wigan led twice, Chris Martin equalised twice and Simon Whaley got the winner to raise the levels of optimism among Norwich fans to dangerously high levels.

There's no doubt about what stood out from this game though: Wigan's kit.

For some reason they had forsaken their usual blue and white stripes for this game in favour of a brand new bright orange away kit.

Wigan are not the only ones. After a few sensible years, kit manufacturers seem to have really gone for it this summer. While not claiming to be a member of the fashionista I have noticed a certain 'creative freedom' reminiscent of the mid-90's which brought us Norwich's paint-splattered look, David Seaman's tube-of-refreshers England shirt and Hull City's tiger skinned top.

As well as Wigan we've seen Newcastle and Everton coming out with designs which will test the loyalty of those fans who like to buy the latest replica shirt each summer.

Mind you, football shirts are not supposed to be high fashion are they? A grown man in a modern replica shirt on a non-matchday is never a good look. Fair enough if you are going to watch your team play or are under the age of about 15 but in any other circumstances they are difficult to justify.

As for Wigan, their new manager Roberto Martinez has a hard-earned reputation for being amongst the most stylish in the game. At Carrow Road even the Spaniard's crisp white shirt, smart trousers and polished brown shoes couldn't rescue his team in the fashion stakes.

They looked to me like a team of stewards, so fluorescent were their tops. Wigan will certainly be alright if they suffer floodlight failure during the up-coming season.

I wonder whether Martinez would even have taken the Wigan job if they had showed him these retina-punishing outfits at the interview?

A Pair of Twitts

2009-07-30T15:19:00.005+01:00

Crystal Palace 0-1 Norwich City

Another pre-season friendly and another win. I would like to tell you more and wax lyrical about Simon Whaley's goal and the all-round performance of the team but I wasn't at the game. A week-long stint presenting BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show kept me away from a Tuesday night out at Selhurst Park.

It was odd knowing that Norwich City were playing and I wasn't there but it did make me realise how things have moved on. I spent much of the evening sitting in front of my computer at home waiting for the EDP's football writer Chris Lakey to post goal updates on twitter.

I couldn't help but wonder what the 10-year-old me would have made of all this. I have vivid memories of sitting in the front room on Saturday afternoons (after Saint and Greavsie) glued to the TV and waiting for ceefax to bring me news of the canaries progress away from home. The lack of detail somehow added to the romance of the whole thing as you desperately hoped for words like 'Fleck 15' or 'Rosario 37' to appear underneath the name of Norwich City.

Tap-ins and 25-yard screamers were all treated exactly the same by what seemed like groundbreaking technology at the time. Scorers and minutes is all you would get when it was good news. Bad news could be brought to you in green text. Things like 'Gunn sent off' or 'Bowen missed pen' would have the young me practising whatever the nearest thing I knew to a swear word was.

Even during pre-season friendlies every bad challenge, missed open goal or substitution can now be brought to you immediately and you can even post a message to the reporter at the ground. Ceefax is clinging on by its clumsy, square, pixelated figure nails and in the-not-too-distant-future will seem as primitive as the telegram or the carrier pigeon does today.

Twitter isn't all good news though. I was planning to write about how Crystal Palace (a) wasn't a fixture I was sad to see disappearing from our calendar, despite the relegation.

Their ground, somewhere in the backstreets of Croydon, is tough to get to and the facilities leave plenty to be desired. I am usually careful not to carp-on about the tea or the sandwiches in the press rooms at grounds because when fans have had to pay £15 for the pleasure (!) of being allowed into a rickety old stadium it seems churlish to complain about the quality of the tea bags or the lack of a comfy chair to sit on when you are effectively being paid to go and watch football.

I was planning to make an exception for Palace because I have been there as a 'real' Norwich fan and experienced the away end. It may come as a little consolation that it is no better 'behind the scenes'. One season we got there at about midday at which point the old boy in the press room started up the tea urn. It was eventually ready to drink at about five-to-two and it had that taste that you only get at football grounds. Teams of scientists have spent years in laboratories trying to re-create that football ground tea taste. It has to burn the roof of your mouth on contact and be about the same colour as David Dickinson. The choice at football is not tea or coffee it's light-brown water or dark-brown water. But we still drink it. It's part of going to the match.

I was going to write all that but my interest in this particular pre-season friendly didn't go unnoticed on Twitter. I am now being followed in twit-world by a group of people called cpfc.org - a Palace fans website. They have to go to Selhurst Park every week. There's always someone worse off than yourself.

Typical Manchester United

2009-07-27T16:45:00.006+01:00

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.

Snakes and Bradders

2009-07-27T16:08:00.004+01:00

Norfolk 257-6 Staffordshire 153 all out. Norfolk win by 104 runs

Ok, so the idea of this blog was to follow all things Norwich City but as all canaries fans know, you cannot afford to ignore a trophy when you get one.

So, in the height of Ashes fever, the BBC Radio Norfolk sports team decamped to Durham for what for us was as big as anything Flintoff and co. are fighting it out for this summer. The Minor Counties one-day trophy is admittedly played out without the vast majority of people even noticing but these guys all have other jobs and covering this final at the fine Riverside ground was a pleasure rarely afforded when you are used to commentating on the relative glamour of professional football.

Some of the players, including bowler Paul Bradshaw (above right), joined us for a stint of commentary as Norfolk headed for a well deserved win.

This was the one-day final played over two days. I realise this does nothing to defeat the often-had argument that cricket is far too complicated and difficult to follow but it was the rain's fault. The extension caused a bit of an issue for the BBC Radio Norfolk commentary team, some of whom spent the second day of this final in borrowed clothes after only bringing enough for one day.

These days Durham is a fully-fledged Test Match venue and on this evidence deserves to be. Players,officials and fans all had only positive things to say about their genial hosts although there was one sign at the ground which caught my eye:

Supporters at The Minor Counties one-day final couldn't be further from the beverage-vessel-stacking antics of the Barmy Army. The fact it happens on a Wednesday (and Thursday when it rains) means the sort of people who can go tend to be those that aren't at work anymore and are sufficiently passionate about cricket to go all the way from Norfolk to Durham. That's about 300 miles. They certainly were not going to be watching the final through an alcohol induced haze. I notice the sign doesn't mention anything about the stacking of tea cups.

Glory in Excelsior

2009-07-18T20:15:00.007+01:00

Airdrie United 2-3 Norwich City

Three goals, three wins and three weeks to go until League One. The excellent Wes Hoolahan opened the scoring with trialists Goran Maric and Jens Berthel-Askou also getting on the scoresheet in the first half at Airdrie's Excelsior Stadium.

I thought I was in with a chance of playing when handed my kit for the afternoon. Most grounds give you a ticket, some a sticker and the posher ones a laminated pass to help you prove your identity to any over-zealous stewards for whom a bag of microphones isn't good enough. At Airdrie they either like you to feel the part to help improve your matchday experience or, and this is much more likely, they are fed up with dishevelled reporters like me spending upto ten minutes at a time rifling through loose change, spare batteries and pocket fluff to locate that press pass.

I looked at the Norwich squad list. No number 22. I was snapped out of a daydream involving landing a playing contract after impressing Bryan Gunn with my ability to put a training tabard on the right way round by the feeling I was being watched. And I was......

The Airdrie owl sits quietly yet threateningly at the back of the press box. Its official duty is to scare pigeons to stop them from nesting (or worse) in the stand between matches. Or so they say. I think it is a clever PR trick. No journalist would be brave enough to write anything anti-Airdrie with those eyes piercing a hole in the back of their blue, numbered tabard.

So that was Scotland. The tour's left me more optimistic about all things Norwich City than when I set out for Dartford a week ago. It had better be cautious optimism though. The past few seasons have left scars too deep to be covered by wins over three teams who, until this week, didn't mean much to me other than a sign that James Alexander Gordon had almost reached the end of his five minutes work for another week.

Love and Maric

2009-07-16T17:42:00.009+01:00

St Johnstone 0-1 Norwich City

Another 1-0 win and another goal from a trialist. Goran Maric - a Serbian striker with the appearance of Dean Ashton has impressed here. Gunn hinted in the post-match interview that he was considering signing him.

If he does then surely the fans can start singing his name to the famous old Sinatra tune 'Love and Marriage' - it scans beautifully.

Goran Maric, Goran Maric, they go together like.........

This match was a trip back in time for me. Played on what was basically a playing field at St Andrews University there was nowhere to sit and it was a case of juggling phone, notebook, camera and pen as the game unfolded. It reminded me of covering Jewson League games at Wroxham when I first joined BBC Radio Norfolk, only more Scottish.

Having met Scotland's most helpful manager at the Raith match, St Johnstone's Derek McInnes was the polar opposite. He refused to tell anyone who was playing for his team because he wanted the game behind closed doors and wasn't impressed that 200 or so City fans had turned up. He did promise to tell us who had scored the goals for his team if we approached him after the game. We chose not to remind him of this after City had completed their clean sheet.

One of my boyhood heroes was watching: Kevin Drinkell. A 1980's City striker who was free-scoring at around the time I started watching them. I had just about plucked up the courage to approach him for an interview when I saw him leaving. It's a lesson I should have learnt by now. Football people never stay until the end when they go to watch a match.

Not Exactly Barcelona

2009-07-16T09:33:00.003+01:00

Being immersed in all things Norwich City means you sometimes lose track of their exact standing in the football world. Every so often you will get a short, sharp reminder that, despite what they may sing on the terraces, the canaries probably are not the greatest team the world has ever seen.

While watching a training session at St Andrews University sports ground I noticed one of the locals had stopped to peer through the fence. We made eye contact and I could see he was about to ask a question.

"Which team is this?" he asked in one of those sophisticated, slightly high-pitched almost sing-song Scottish accents. It was exactly how I thought he would sound with his smart trousers, pastel blue pullover and Michael Heseltine hairstyle.

When I told him it was Norwich City his response was one of those moments: "Is that the team with the famous cook?"

He went on to ask whether we are still in The Championship meaning the four Norwich fans within earshot had to publicly admit what they had been trying to forget.

Our new friend then kicked us while we were down by telling us about pre-season last year when Barcelona had used the same ground as their training base. Scottish Michael Heseltine said the crowds were lined up along the street, two deep, trying to get a look at Thierry Henry and co. Where were they this year? The team with the famous cook had drawn a local following of just one.

Even the three groudstaff were full of tales of Barca when we chatted to them as they stopped painting rugby posts to crack open the Thermos.

Painting lines on the pitch for one of the biggest football clubs in the world was understandably a real thrill for them. So much so that one of them, as we left them to get back to work, was staring into the middle distance before wiping the sandwich crumbs from his hands on his paint-spatted white overall and asking dreamily: "I wonder whether they'll come back next year?" I hope they do.

Life following Norwich City isn't going to be about world superstars this year but I think we'll be ok. Dundee United also use this training complex regularly and as their squad jogged past us on one of those runs that reminds me of PE lessons in the freezing cold Chris Lakey from the EDP and myself were genuinely excited to have recognised the former Everton striker Danny Cadamarteri among their number. I think we have found our level.

BBC Fife Live

2009-07-15T00:29:00.006+01:00

Raith Rovers 0-1 Norwich City

Paul McVeigh's neatly taken winner, just after coming on as a sub decided this one. A post match interview with Bryan Gunn makes me think McVeigh has a very good chance of turning his trial with the club into a more permanent return.

The demands of a live match preview on BBC Radio Norfolk at 5.30pm meant arriving at Stark's Park well before the ground was even open. Thankfully a kindly man in a Raith Rovers sweater helped myself and EDP football writer Chris Lakey into the ground and showed us to our seats in the press box.

Two hours later we realised we really had been given VIP treatment, without even knowing it. As the game kicked off I spotted our helpful friend standing just by the home dugout. It turns out the man we assumed was one of the ground staff, the kit man or a caretaker was actually wearing that red sweater -complete with the initials JMcG on the breast - because his name is John McGlynn and he is the manager who took the team to the Scottish Second Division title last season.

Having failed to recognise the opposition manager, I ended the evening by attempting to get some reaction to the match from some of the Norwich supporters. A great radio feature, I thought, not only can these people talk about the 1-0 win over Raith but they are bound to have a good story about why they've travelled all this way for a friendly. I carefully hand-picked a couple of blokes in replica City shirts who didn't shy away at the site of a microphone.

The first (sporting the 92/93 home shirt, the one that looks like a cross between a bruised banana and an accident at the Dulux factory) was there because he works in Edinburgh two days a week. Hardly the sort of Whicker-esque travelog I was after. Fan number 2 (2001/2002 play-off final shirt) had a Scottish accent and lives in Falkirk. Their combined travel time to this game: Just under two hours.

Och Aye The New Signings

2009-07-14T14:30:00.004+01:00

No self respecting football team starts a season these days without having a tour.

That's why I find myself on a Tuesday afternoon in a hotel room in St Andrews. I feel well out of place.

It's got nothing to do with an irrational paranoia about being an Englishman north of the border.

Neither is it, in Prince William's favourite university town, an inferiority complex about my lack of royal blood.

No, my discomfort can be summed up in one word: Golf.

This whole town is built around the Royal and Ancient. I must be the only person ever to stay in this hotel, which believe it or not is even on a street called Golf Place, not to posses even a half-set of clubs never mind plus-fours, a sun-visor or my own caddy.

It's the only golf course I have ever seen which doesn't involve having to putt a ball through a little windmill. I had better not say that out loud while I'm here.

A cynic might suggest that the proximity of such a golfing mecca might be one of the reasons a football squad would choose this wee town (as the locals probably wouldn't say) as their base for a pre-season training camp.

A quick walk around the town on my arrival revealed another potential motive for Norwich City's manager to come here.

There's Light at the End of the (Dartford) Tunnel

2009-07-11T22:43:00.012+01:00

Peter Crouch was among the spectators at Princes Park

Dartford 2-7 Norwich City

Ok, so it was a pre-season friendly but bearing in mind the last time I saw a Norwich City team play was that final day debacle at Charlton, seeing City get 7 was worth the trip.

Michael Nelson, Scott Nielson, Gary Doherty, Chris Martin (2) and Jamie Cureton (2) kept us lot in the press box busy with goals at regular intervals and by mid-way through the second we were taking it turns to ask: "Is that 5-2 or 6-2 now?"

Pre-season is a time for blowing away the cobwebs - and not just for players.

The decision to allow Andy D'Urso to referee the game meant the thousand or so City fans got an early opportunity to flex their booing muscles and get in some work on those chants which include the sort of words that would have made Bernard Manning blush.

Man of the Match: Physical presence is vital in the modern game which is why my eye was caught by the 20 foot-man over on the far side. Dartford's Princes Park is a little over two years old and is the only ground I know with a statue actually inside. I think we should put in an offer. How useful would he be on corners in both boxes? Yes, he's made of oak, but he's less wooden than........... (insert your choice of footballer here)

It's pre-season for the reporters too and that's my excuse for committing the ultimate in broadcasting schoolboy errors. My mobile phone went off while I was recording an interview with Paul McVeigh. Still, it's pre-season - we'll all have it ironed out by August 8th......... won't we?

The Danger Starts Here

2009-07-10T20:05:00.004+01:00

Welcome to Never Mind the Danger.

Inspired by Norwich City's plunge into the third tier of English football for the first time in 50 years NMTD is designed to be a personal view of the season as my team, not to mention their loyal supporters, come to terms with officially being a 'lower division' club.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy? FA Cup 1st Round? A whole division lower than Doncaster Rovers?* We shouldn't be here. But we are until May at the very earliest so we may as well look it straight in the eye, puff out our yellow and green chests and take whatever they have to throw at us.

The second line of the club's anthem 'On The Ball City' - so often sung if not with great clarity, with unquestionable passion from The Barclay, urges the team to 'Never mind the danger.' At times like this it's a message we could all do well to take on board.

The aim isn't to discuss formations, transfer gossip and hamstring strains. It is to share those away-day experiences and attempt to explain why people are willing to go to Exeter or Carlisle for a 0-0 draw and consider it a good day out. The 90 minutes each week is just a small part of being a football supporter. Even in League One, there has to be room to celebrate the little things that keep us coming back week after week.

* With no disrespect to the lads, as football people say. It could just have easily have been any number of teams now in The Championship but I just happened to pick Doncaster Rovers. They are in a higher league because they deserve to be. He says desperate not to upset anyone within minutes of starting this whole thing.