In the second part of our end-of-season summary, the MFW team give us their highs and lows …
Martin Penney
High…
My season’s highlight began about 20 minutes before the Villa match. NCFC had an official outside stall selling quilted black managers’ jackets with OTBC in yellow on the deep-set left-hand pocket. Bought one, worn it often and it’s still brilliant. A TENNER! Went into a local charity shop a couple of days afterwards, got a kids’ shirt for a quid so we cut the badge off and the lovely Susan sewed it on for me. Top dollar. They had a few more of these coats left before Cardiff so I bought another one just in case. TENNER again! Badge yet to be acquired.
Or the highlight could have been Josh’s hit against Villa – I’m right behind the Barclay goal and we could all hear it as it hit what appeared to be the angle. Sorry Timm – your Binner-killing header went in at my end too – I do understand.
Low…
Worst moment: walking down the ever descending Barclay stairs as an older gent put his non-ferruled walking stick through my foot. I mean really through it. His apology was amazing: “Sorry chap I have to get down anyway I can”. I tried to explain about the service lift but quickly realised I was wasting my time. Blood on the Tracks? No, blood on the stairs. Or it could have been Millwall away. Yeah, that was probably worse.
Gary Gowers
High…
Tricky. Was determined not to plump for Timmy’s header against that lot (although it really was the highlight) – and, let’s face it, we were guilty of over-celebrating what was in fact only an equaliser against “mid-table fodder” – so I’m going to have to go for something a tad more obscure. So, remember that afternoon in late September when we went to South Yorkshire and won 1-0? Well, that, or at least something linked to that.
The Blades, buoyed by a run of four consecutive wins and with a stereotypical ‘say what I like, and like what I bloody well say’ Yorkshireman in charge, were absolutely fuming – foaming at the mouth, steam coming from the ears type fuming. And it was brilliant in its own gritty, dour, sh!thousing type way. The pièce de résistance, however, was this. Priceless!
Low…
Too many to chose from for my liking, but having not been at The Den, Villa Park or Hillsborough I guess I got off lightly compared to some. Instead, I’m going to offer up the two home 0-0 draws in the space of ten days at the end of Feb/beginning of March, against Bolton and Forest. Two almost identical blanks were enough to draw the joy and optimism out of even the happiest of clappers and, while the performance levels were okay, wrapped up in those 180 minutes were clear signals that only mid-table mediocrity beckoned.
Steve Cook
High…
In my family, City’s fixtures against Middlesbrough provide an ideal opportunity for a get together of the Teesside and Norfolk Cooks. On my previous trip to the Riverside, I saw City get spanked 4-0 and got done by a speed camera on the way home. So as I took my place in the away end last September, expectations were pretty low. 13 minutes into the match, Madderz picked up the ball and stuck it ‘top bins’ from 30 yards. A stunning goal and my first glimpse of what a talent we have (had?) on our hands. Tettey and Trybull killed the match off with a minimum of fuss and 3 points were in the bag rather than on my license. Lovely old job.
Low…
In Cambridge, the word ‘friendly’ is a term used for the physical assault of high-paid footballers and one that left star man, Alex Pritchard on crutches and requiring ankle surgery. Without his talent and trickery, Farke’s team looked woefully short of creativity and attacking menace.
“I know it’s dire Dad, but Pritch will be back from injury soon and then it’ll be alright”. Except it wasn’t. As soon as he regained full fitness, he buggered off to Huddersfield, faster than you can say “I’m a pint-sized, ginger play-maker… get me outta here”. I shouldn’t have expected any sense of loyalty from a player who did a ‘U-ey’ on the M25 whilst heading for Brighton, but I can’t help feeling we were robbed during his short time in yellow and green.
Gary Field
With the completion of 40th season supporting City, 2017-18 will hardly count as a classic – in fact it was mah!
What started in the sunshine by the Thames, with a last-minute equaliser from Nelson, ended in the April drizzle at the Carra and a perfectly scripted departure for a wee Irishman – one of the best to don Yellow and Green across my four decades.
High…
There have not been too many highs during the season – although Timm’s 96th-minute equaliser was certainly up there – but, for me, it’s the meteoric rise of James Maddison. Every once in a while you see a player who’s special – the last comparable for me was Craig Bellamy. I’ve enjoyed every minute; watching a naturally gifted man, who makes the game look so easy, scoring some wonderful goals along the way. Sadly, I fear we’ve seen the last of James in Canary yellow.
Low…
If I had to pick a low point it would be the 22nd December and the 2-1 home defeat by Brentford. It was the culmination of a ten-game miserably run; just five points out of a possible 30 and left me seriously questioning whether Daniel Farke was the right man for the job. Then I genuinely thought he wasn’t, but, subsequently, there’s encouraging signs of progress.
End of term report – 6 out of 10 from me.
Jack Goddard
High…
There have been more dramatic highs this season – Timm Klose’s last-gasp equaliser against Ipswich, or even Jamal Lewis’s goal to send us to extra time against Chelsea. But I don’t think we’ve fallen quite far enough to start celebrating draws, especially against Ipswich. After all, it’s been quite easy to win against our neighbours this season, as I discovered in a Perth sports bar back in October.
Despite being 8,935 miles away from Carrow Road, I was still able to find one screen showing the most important football match of the day and before I knew it my garish yellow shirt had proven enough to strike up a conversation with the one remaining person left in the bar. As it turns out, as far from home as it is almost possible to be, I had found a fellow member of the Yellow Army. Not long afterwards, of course, James Maddison scored and I made a rather animalistic noise that rattled a bar staff member or two. Then, after the Biggest Game In Football had been switched over to poker by said disinterested bar staff, my new friend and I were able to talk our way into watching City see out the game, win another East Anglian Derby, and reach the play-off places for the one and only time this season.
Low…
There haven’t been any massive lows this season that I can think of [Jack penned this pre-Hillsborough – Ed], more a regular stream of disappointments that have left us very mid-table. In lieu of anything else, I will pick Wes Hoolahan’s emotional departure from the Carrow Road pitch. A good win, and the perfect send-off, but we won’t see his like dedicate ten years to Norwich perhaps ever again.
Craig Bailey
High…Seeing the only actual fourth tier German player – Christoph Zimmermann – being a roaring success and breaking the record for consecutive away clean sheets.
The amount of injuries and impatience/moaning from some fans.
Connor Southwell
High…
It’s been a topsy-turvy season and the overriding themes of frustration and inconsistency being pertinent amongst the supporting base. Littered amongst that, however, have been moments of bedlam, Jamal Lewis’ header in the dying embers at Stamford Bridge or Timm Klose’s prevention of Ipswich Town beating their arch nemesis for the first time in nine seasons.
Those are all obvious highs, but to be different, I’m going to pinpoint that excellent display against Aston Villa at Carrow Road. That performance was full of everything supporters want to witness, a punch to support the panache in which Norwich operated. It proves that Norwich are capable of playing this philosophy. Consistency needs to replace the inconsistent streak they’ve displayed at points.
Low…
Likewise, I could pinpoint a few. Fortunately, I wasn’t part of the travelling contingent who travelled to Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday or QPR. For me, the abject performance against Burton in December was quite comfortably one of the worst games of football I’ve consumed.
Matthew Howman
High…
I was sitting down to write about my high point of the season and had to stall slightly, Klose at Ipswich? The Jamal Lewis equaliser in the league cup vs. Chelsea? The problem we’ve had is these moments have been few and far between, there was only one other moment that I could recall that didn’t involve me delving deep into the memory bank or looking back over the season’s results.
For me, the highlight of the season was Maddison’s goal against Ipswich at Portman Road. I expect a number of his goals to be included but this was one I clearly remember, watching nervously in hope that we would stretch our unbeaten run. I remember jumping around the house like I’d won the lottery – a fine moment in an otherwise forgettable season!
Low…
The low point for me was the run prior to Christmas – one win in nine. It was that run of results that killed the idea of us challenging for the playoffs and really set the tone for the new year. If Farke is looking at next season’s squad then he has to look back at that run of games, analyse the players that suffered and question whether they would be the right fit in a side that should be challenging for the top six next year.
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