Fan in Exile

WHO WILL I SUPPORT???

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:49:00 GMT

Tonight is the final of Euro 2008 between Spain and Germany. I am not planning to make it a key part of my evening. I'll probably be watching The Sweeney on ITV4 at that time, and might catch up with the score during commercial breaks.

Of course I want Spain to beat the Germans, but that doesn't mean I need to watch the game. I don't know about you, but there's so much live football on TV these days, and life's too short to watch matches you have no real interest in. You can't automatically trust good players to produce entertaining games. I did actually watch most of Spain v Italy. Say no more.

Remember, you won't be able to get those two hours of your life back again. Just coz I'd like the Germans to get beaten, I DO NOT need to watch the whole game and sort of support Spain. I'm sure I'll see the best 30 seconds of the game on all the BBC News broadcasts in the next 24 hours. And that brings me to that ANNOYING Euro 2008 preview bit that the BBC have been putting between most of their programs for the last month...

"EURO 2008... WHO WILL YOU SUPPORT???"

Well, my answer to that question is... "Norwich City, England, Great Britain, and at a pinch, the Norfolk cricket team." In other words, NOBODY at Euro 2008. The very fact that the BBC seem to be able to ask that question so freely, show a lack of understanding about what supporting a football team means to some of us. There is GENUINE LOYALTY involved, and with the important one... NCFC... GENUINE SUPPORT given.

By all means they should promote these matches as having talented players involved, and therefore POTENTIALLY interesting to watch, but don't belittle the business of supporting a football team as something you can change on a whim as easily and often as David Beckham's hairstyle.

I'd better stop there. I can sense that this rant is about to switch to all those bogus Manchester United supporters, and MY life is too short to start on that.

We could do it!

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:49:00 GMT

Hearing "Play up Pompey" being sung at the F.A. Cup Final... SPONSORED BY EON ... yesterday, makes me realise that there's no reason why we shouldn't be hearing... and SINGING ... "On the ball, City" on that same occasion in not so many years to come.

We've been close before. The images and stories of 1959 never fail to send a shiver down my spine. The 3-0 win over Manchester United in the snow. The Ken Nethercott and Sandy Kennon story. Terry Bly's goal against Spurs at Carrow Road. Oh... It's starting to happen again.

I have personally been to two League Cup Finals at (the "old") Wembley and the 1989 F.A. Cup Semi-final at Villa Park, but it would be nice to see the F.A Cup with yellow and green ribbons on it, and Delia taking it on a lap of honour with the lads... skipping along in the style of Nobby Stiles. I'd better stop there. My imagination is going too far.

Well.. Roll on next season. Perhaps it could happen sooner than we know.

What a shame!

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:27:00 GMT

Any regular readers of this blog will know that previously I thought it would be fun if City and Ipswich started next season on equal terms after Ipswich had missed the play-offs by one point, and City had missed relegation by one point.

WELL... I wasn't far off! City ended up with two points more than they needed, but I got the Ipswich part right! They missed out by ONE POINT! They got their win today, but Palace and Watford got the results they needed, so... NO PLAY-OFF MATCHES FOR IPSWICH!

What a shame!

Good News!

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:18:00 GMT

NORWICH CITY 3 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 0!!!!

It seems like I was wrong! City won on Saturday and have confirmed their place in the Championship next season. CLEARLY, duing that recent run of poor results, they've been trying to win all along and NOT deliberately letting points slip to postpone suvival as long as possible.

Of course I never really imagined that City could be relegated to the Third Division...

That's what it is!!... The THIRD Division! I don't mind calling the First Division the "Premiership", or the Second Division the "Championship", but we don't need new names for the Third and Fourth Division! (My feelings about renaming the Football League for no good reason could well be given a posting of their own.)

Now... Where was I?... Oh, yes. City have survived... BUT looking at the names of the teams below and around us in the table shows that nobody can rely on their Championship status as secure... COVENTRY, SOUTHAMPTON, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY, LEICESTER... And look what happened to NOTTINGHAM FOREST and LEEDS! It's genuinely a bit scary, innit?

Petty??... Yes... But so what?

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:03:00 GMT

Well... Another disappointing result last Saturday, but not such a disappointing performance. BUT... City's fate is still in their own hands. AND... I think it's all planned and under control.

It's like this. They've been keeping close tabs on the results of the teams below them, and when the time comes to get the points to clinch survival, they will do it... BUT NOT BEFORE!... AND BY NO MORE THAN NECESSARY!

Why? Well, it's to take the mickey out of Ipswich...

DON'T YOU SEE how much fun it would be to start next season in the Championship on equal terms and a clean slate, when Ipswich have missed out on the play-offs by one point, and City have missed out on relegation by the same margin.

NO??? Well, I expect many of you readers will be appalled by such a petty point of view. But these are the thoughts and feelings of somebody born and bred in Norwich, and for whom Norwich City has been a big part of their life, and as far as I'm concerned, negative feelings about Ipswich are PART OF the package.

So there!

Oh... and what about that penalty miss by Ronaldo!! AND the look on his face afterwards!! Small things like that can really put a spring in your step.

You Just Can't Rely on Arsenal.

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:15:00 GMT

It's been a bad few days for football results.

First of all, City managed to come from in front to lose at Ipswich. I wasn't suprised. My mother told me that City were sure to win, but... she says that EVERY week. Of course she's right sometimes. But apart from the very rare good result, Portman Road's never been a good place for us. I remember going there to see us get tonked 5-0. I think it was 1979. I haven't checked.

Also this Sunday, Arsenal did the same trick as City to lose at Old Trafford. Couldn't they hold on to a lead... just this time? I thought they were supposed to be good at that. I suspect they'd rather give United (and "Smug Player of the Year", Ronaldo) the title on a plate rather than let Chelsea take it back to London. Chelsea's lost points to Wigan on Monday has surely settled it, and has kept me away from the sports pages since then.

You can't rely on Arsenal. I've NEVER been that keen on them (on any teams that play in red... or blue) but on occasions I've rooted for them (like this week) and they've ALWAYS let me down. The BIG one of course was the 1978 Cup Final when they were hot favourites to beat Ipswich. YOU know what happened. What a painful day!

And a few years ago I cheeered at hearing the news from the Cup Semi-Final that Arsenal were 1-0 up against ten-man Manchester United with only minutes to go. Again, YOU know what happened. And are we allowed to forget it? Those Ryan Giggs goals are rolled out by the BBC at any excuse.

Well, back to City. It looks like we should still be in the Championship for next season, and I do have a little confidence in Roeder to put a solid challenge together.

As for where the chips are going to fall in the next few weeks, the Premiership does seem to be staying at Old Trafford. In fact I'd be in favour of handing them the Champions League too, on condition that we don't see them on TV any more this season.

As for Ipswich, perhaps the most fun would be to see them get to the Wembley play-off final and be well beaten by some other "City"... Stoke, Bristol, or Hull. Or perhaps lose on penalties after dominating the game. OH YES!!! That's the best!

Another look back to 1983 coming up!

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:23:00 GMT

Start to get excited! City are coming on THE BIG MATCH REVISITED on ITV4 again. So if you want to see some highlights from City v Sunderland in April 1983, set those video / DVD recorders.

You've got four chances:
Thu 17/04/08 11.30 and again 16.00
Fri 18/04/08 10.55
Sun 20/04/08 11.45.

That final one shows the cleverness of those people at ITV. They've scheduled it to start just after THE CHAMPIONSHIP has just finished on ITV1. You'll be able to switch straight over and judge how much the standard of football highlights have improved in the last 25 years... or not.

And City likewise!!

Funny What Reminds You

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:42:00 GMT

Relaxing in the bath last Sunday, my mind turned to Saturday's football results. One of the matches that came to mind was Colchester's 4-3 defeat at West Brom, and there seemed to be something very familiar about the course of events in that game.

The away team had gone 2-0 up. The home team had come back to 2-2. The away team went ahead again 3-2. Then, in the final minutes, the home team came back again to win 4-3.

I had seen this course of events before. In fact, I was there... Highbury, 4th November 1989... Arsenal 4, Norwich 3... had gone in exactly the same way. But what we had in our game that Colchester and West Brom missed was a big punch-up at the end, followed later by big fines all round from the F.A.

I think City were fined more than Arsenal, and that's probably fair. I confess that it looked like it was our side that started the big brawl. In the stand, we all felt badly about Arsenal's two penalties, and the bad luck we felt we'd had, and down on the pitch, City players probably felt the same.

My memory isn't great, but I had a good seat at Highbury to see what happened. I remember Bryan Gunn punching Alan Smith in the face, which I think got the fun started... or did I imagine that?

My thoughts then drifted to Kevin Keelan. I'm sure I heard that he punched an opposing player a couple of times. Wasn't it the same opposing player but in two different matches? This was before my time at Carrow Road, so if anyone has more on that, I'd love to get the full details.

As for City's match at Bristol City last Saturday, I don't have much to say. I don't recall us ever getting much joy down there. I think the only time I went we lost 3-2. Or did I imagine that too?

Today's Big Match

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:33:00 GMT

I watched THE BIG MATCH REVISITED this afternoon. I recorded it from ITV4 this morning coz I knew it showed City v West Ham from 1983. That wasn't the main game on, but it was fun to watch it all the way through. Nice to see Brian Moore again, and hear the voice of Gerry Harrison.

The main match was... wait for it... Fulham v Grimsby. They showed the team sheets over the pre match kickabout, and I recognised a name. Dean Coney was playing for Fulham. I knew he used to be one of ours, although I couldn't remember anything more.

A quick search on-line found the info I wanted. Apparently, Dave Stringer signed him for City in 1989 for a big fee hoping he would score a few. But... he was a big let-down and un-popular with the fans, and only scored one lucky goal in his 17 games. He didn't do too much on telly today either.

As that game drew to an end, another Fulham player looked very familiar... Roger Brown... and his name rang a little bell. Another visit to the ex-canaries website revealed he played 21 games at centre-half in 1979-80. I do remember seeing him play at Carrow Road. Very good in the air.

After the ad break, they showed the City match... but not a lot. West Ham were higher up the old First Division than us, but we seemed to have the better of it... well, according to the choice of highlights from Anglia Television.

Keith Bertschin was playing that day. I met him not long ago. He lives near me in the Midlands, and I was teaching his daughter maths. He was working with Steve Bruce at Birmingham at the time. It now seems he's gone to Wigan with him.

I have nothing to say about the final match shown between Nottingham Forest and Southampton. No more ex-canaries to talk about.

If you read this posting in time, you may be able to catch the programme yourself. It's being shown again tomorrow (Friday) on ITV4 at 1pm. Enjoy!

Hello

geoffparfitt@supanet.com — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:46:00 GMT

Hello. Welcome to my new blog.

Despite not having attended a match for a while, I've been allowed the chance to start a blog to comment on current events at Carrow Road, and at the same time reflect on my memories and experiences as a City supporter over many years.

To kick things off, here's a few memories that seem to sum up my life to date with Norwich City F.C. There will be more to come.

FIRST EVER MATCH
City 0, Chelsea 1. (League Cup Quarter Final, 17th November 1971)

My active support for City started as part of a 35,000 crowd at Carrow Road in our original promotion season. I was with my dad in the old River End which was all terraced and uncovered in those days. I remember my poor visability of Peter Osgood scoring the only goal, but more than that, I remember the torrential rain and the water going down my neck.

FAVOURITE PLAYER
Jimmy Neighbour.

I know I'm not the only one to love the exciting attacking players most. Of the great tricky wingers we've had over the years... Ken Foggo, Ruel Fox... etc., I rate Jimmy the best, but that's perhaps because he was a member of that wonderful entertaining team John Bond put together.

The other favourite players that come most to mind are also from about that time... Ted MacDougal, Martin O'Neill... and from that and other times... Kevin Keelan.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT(S)
City 0, Everton 1. (FA Cup Semi Final, Villa Park, 15th April 1989)

Everton won the match without ever getting a corner in the whole 90+ minutes! There were people crying at Witton Station after the match. Not me. I was brave. We didn't know what had happened at the other Semi Final till later that evening.

As everyone reading this will know, we haven't been deprived of disappointments. What particularly come to mind are two League Cup Finals at Wembley in 1973 and 1975 without scoring in either...

AND the 1976 FA Cup Fifth Round 2-1 defeat at Carrow Road to Fourth Division Bradford. Other fans were clearly also very upset. As I walked back over Carrow Bridge that night, I remember a hot-dog stand being thrown over the side into the river. I'm sure I didn't imagine that!

BIGGEST JOY
Aston Villa 2, City 3. (FA Premier League, Christmas 1992... 28th November actually, but near enough!)

City played well. Lost a 2-0 lead but got back in front and held on at the end. The best part was standing at the back of the stand after the game and singing to the departing Villa supporters "Top of the League... Top of the League", which we were... at CHRISTMAS!!! Well, 28th November... but near enough.

All for now.