Martin Penney

I was never one for the Bible. One of my parents was Church of England and the other Roman Catholic but they never forced anything upon me, although I did endure “Scripture” lessons at school. In my very late teens I had to do some digging into the great book for a Uni dissertation and […]

The other day our very own Stewart Lewis suggested somebody should do an article on NCFC loans in. Fool that I am, I threw my hat in the ring, drew the short straw and so off I’ll go. I won’t remember all of them – who could – but there can only truly be one […]

As we have a bit of a collective break just now I thought I’d take a look at a few of our former players who never, ever get a mention. I don’t know why, but nobody seems to remember them, let alone speak about them. It’s not just MFW, nobody recalls them anywhere. As for […]

I couldn’t help it and only I could do it. I wrote in my MFW preview piece that Cole Skuse is my least favourite binner. And then he picks up the original injury from hell. Cole I am genuinely sorry for my reference and wish you all the very best for a safe and speedy […]

‘No changes for either side at HT. Probably because there were enough before kick-off.’ A direct quote from Archant’s Michael Bailey of course but it does kind of sum up the way this “competition”, aka the Carabao Cup, is viewed by managers and head coaches across the footballing spectrum. Give the squad players some game […]

I have to say I have had a well-rounded thirty years of Norwich City season tickets on the bounce. It doesn’t make me a better supporter than you, MFW readers, just an older one. Both my ankles are shot, and I also have another rather awkward condition to deal with, although it doesn’t affect my […]

I don’t think the pink dressing room theory works. Preston displayed at least as much testosterone as we did throughout the match and were only dissected right at the end by a brace of finishes applied with surgical precision. Alexander Tettey said after the game he had “enjoyed” his worst performance in a yellow shirt. […]

‘Oh, gawd blimey’. My late lamented father used that phrase every time something blew up in his face. It could be his car failing to start, the garden gate coming off its hinges, the dog running off or my mother kicking off at him for no real reason. It could also be employed when he […]

MFW Editor Gary and I have a semi-official agreement that I never write my regular piece for the Monday after a weekend match until I’ve read his article that appears as regular as clockwork early on the Sunday. It’s a great system that works. But this time around this piece is created almost 24 hours […]

Well, I must say I’m happy to settle for that. Embargoed or not, Birmingham City is no easy place to go and to get a second equaliser at 90+4 says something about us. Yes, we still had those awkward, crab-like spells either side of half-time but when the chips were truly down we came up […]

When I read Stewart Lewis’ piece about he and his wife Barbara’s discussions on all things NCFC, it struck a few chords and, in many places, gave me a fit of the giggles – as did some of the comments thereafter. It made me realise that when your partner is also a City supporter, perspectives […]

The King is dead – long live the King! Well, that’s how it feels to me just now as one of the best World Cups I can recall comes to an end – and I’ve lived through 15 of them, even though I remain totally oblivious to events in Chile in 1962. I was only […]

I think it was only two weeks ago that I made the rash statement in a comment on MFW that whoever was coming into NCFC, I wouldn’t have heard of them. It was my bad because that remark was off the cuff and turned out to be untrue. I’m surely excused Moritz Leitner. I’m absolutely […]

‘Positive recruitment leads to positive policing’. I was sat in a hot as hell office in New Scotland Yard as PC Tony De Souza and I knocked out a press release. That phrase meant nothing to me but after I’d grudgingly agreed it could be the intro and our “jackets” were off, Tony and I decamped […]

I go back a heck of a long way with Norwich City transfers out. At 60 years of age I guess that’s only natural. I was gutted when Flecky was sold and really disembowelled when Mr Chase dispatched Chris Sutton through the door to Blackburn for £5 million despite his pre-sale denials. Similarly, I did not want […]

The Romans were well clued up. Even Monty Python acknowledged that. They had a double-headed God called Janus, a household deity who was capable of both good and evil. Which neatly brings me to the sale of Mr Joshua Murphy. No messing around, to get ten million quid for him is brilliant. A great sale […]

MFW MUSIC WEEK – the week that thinks it’s a fortnight. Our writers have thoroughly enjoyed it and luckily so have many of our readers. We have had some fantastic comments from all you lovely posters and covered so much of the musical spectrum it’s incredible. So, I guess the first thing to say is […]

So… given the propensity of the MFW comments to scoot off in a musical direction, we thought it worth filling some of the close season voids with some musical thoughts of the team. First up, the one and only Mr P… *** The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Small Faces, Hendrix, Cream and the […]

One of the most hackneyed phrases in football is “they’re on the beach”. Directed at any side with nothing to play for at the end of a season, it’s assumed minds are elsewhere, wishing the bodies were too. And Good Lord we were the prime example of it the other Sunday at Hillsborough. Supporters wear […]

When I read Gary’s article on Wednesday the memories all came flooding back. They were the glory days and let nobody ever tell you any different. I’d seen Spurs thrash Club Brugge 3-0 at White Lane in the 1980s but that had been the only UEFA Cup match I’d ever witnessed. Until… I remember that final […]