The joys of being a Canary fan! The last three years have been an amazing journey from the depths of despair to the glorious heights of overwhelming joy! When I first started out on the road of supporting the Canaries, they were in the Third Division South, the then joint third tier of English football, along with Third Division North! I had never known them to have been in any higher league than that, so it was easy to accept! Through my early years we had the glorious FA Cup run of '58/'59, followed by promotion to the Second Division, with that being followed by promotion to the First Division, the odd relegation and rise again to the top tier! We were there to welcome the Premier League as founder members, a couple of good seasons in the Prem. with a decent run in Europe, a drop back to the second tier, glorious promotion under Nigel Worthington, who then lost the plot of being a manager, broght in a few big time charlies and a few mis-firing foreigners, the season ending disastrously in a six goal defeat at the hands of Fulham which relegated us back to second tier football! Then followed a few seasons of mediocre Championship football under a succession of very poor managers, the likes of Glen Roeder, Peter Grant, some bloke from Ipswich that I don't wish to name, culminating in the appointment of club legend Bryan Gunn! An outstanding goalkeeper, but, unfortunately, a very, very poor manager! He failed to turn things around and took us down to the third tier of English football for the first time in fifty years! The club, now very close to administration, kept him on for the start of our League One season! We opened our account with a 1 - 7 home defeat at the hands of lowly Colchester United! Despite gaining a 4 - 0 cup win at Yeovil, Gunn was dismissed by our new CEO David McNally, who then appointed Paul Lambert as our manager, after "poaching" him from our opening match tormenters Colchester Utd. The one positive action taken by Gunny was the purchase from Shrewsbury of one striking super-star in the making, namely Grant Holt! I think I speak for most of us when I say, on the appointment of Paul Lambert, we said, "Who?" Well, we're not asking that now, we are bowing down and thanking God for giving us David McNally and Paul Lambert, who, between them, have stabilised the clubs finances and taken us on a journey of untold highs and very, very few lows via back to back promotions, back to the promised land that is the Premier League! Between them, McNally and Lambert have built a team of hungry, young lower league players, who play their hearts out for each other, and have settled nicely into the Premier League mid-table with some quite brilliant, at times, performances! The way the team has progressed over the last three years, it would appear to be likely that Paul Lambert will make a few purchases in the close season transfer window, to "give the lads a hand" and we can look forward to further enjoyment and improvement for next season! He has improved us each season so far, and, although survival is the main objective again for next year, I think we can look forward to more improvement again next year! OTBC ILWT WFLGH
Been with you Dave To rant and rave Every step of the way, The good and bad Joyous and sad But not much beats today, This era could Be just as good Or even better still, Than any high We´ve had gone by Since we began our fill, Potential´s there To bring more cheer Than these three seasons past, And should it be With Lambert P The longer it may last. OTBC
So in all that time, and my starts more or less at the same time, I think Sheff Utd was our first, what has been the biggest single highlight, one particular moment, a goal, miss, sending off, trip to Portaloo Road or whatever that sums up to you what supporting NCFC is all about? For me it was hitch hiking to Watford in May 1972, chucking it down with rain, my then fiance and me getting alift on Newmarket Road, boozing it large in the pub before the game, getting the draw to be champions, invading the pitch at the end, sitting in a gutter and washing the mud off, getting a lift back to Norwich but stopping off in Thetford to join thousands singing their hearts out in the pub.
