Do you remember that scene in the Matrix, where Neo becomes ‘self-aware’…?
For my football awakening, that was the summer of 1993.
Sure, I liked football, used to have a kick around, emulated Gazza, Platt and Lineker during Italia ‘90, but I didn’t have a team. So my Norwich FC journey began in that summer of 1993.
It was whilst reading Gary’s thoroughly enjoyable two-part review of the decade, that it got me thinking about what was my favourite ever season supporting our glorious and, at times, tumultuous club. I knew the answer within seconds – 2018/19.
I’ll explain why later, but in the interests of impartially, I’ll run through a few that came close, but didn’t quite match that most glorious of seasons.
1992/93. Ok, technically I wasn’t really a ‘fan’ during this season. But for many it stands out as the pinnacle of the club’s history and with good reason. Competing at the top of the inaugural Premier League and, in fact, leading it for many weeks, nay months, surely should see this as our greatest ever season?
The arguments are strong. Great passing football, heroes all over the pitch and a tactically savvy and suave manager in Mike Walker. Embedding continental panache on top of the grit and hard work formulated by Stringer, we took the league by storm and what a ride.
However, where this season, for me, doesn’t top the list, is in so far as we fell away at the end. The juggernaut that was Manchester United was finally stuttering into life and we simply couldn’t compete. It had all the hallmarks of a fantastic date, but one that ended with a kebab and a taxi ride home on your own.
Cue 1993/94. Perhaps the season that really put us on the footballing map. Yet, for all the European glory and exposure that the run gave us, it was a season of departures. Mike Walker to Everton, Ruel Fox to Newcastle and, latterly, Chris Sutton to Blackburn. A bittersweet season if ever there was one.
So a period in the wilderness beckoned; insipid seasons with the occasional tantalising glimpse of what could have been.
The next season that could be viewed in a positive light was 2001/02. A season that, on the face of it, never really looked like springing into life until we got to its final throes.
There had been positives – Marc Libbra destroying Man City ‘within seconds’ and the talismanic (well to me) David Neilsen giving a much needed injection of striking depth and quality over the Christmas period, the final day pandemonium against Stockport and then two glorious games vs Wolves – but, for all that we turned The Millenium Stadium a wonderful shade of yellow, we ultimately failed to deliver.
To top it off, we had to suffer the agony of now adding our club side to the long list of international penalty failures we’ve endured over the decades, plus the typical ‘along came Norwich moment’ to be the first side to lose from ‘that’ changing room.
Enter 2003/04, enter the man. Darren Huckerby. I can see why this would rank as the greatest season for many a Canary. Heading towards our first time back in the Promised Land following a hiatus of seven years, ripping the league up, sensational signings (Crouch, Svensson and McKenzie to name a few) and who can forget “Top of the League at Portman Road”.
Yet, I think that due to the length of prolonged success (we didn’t move off of top spot in the second half of the season) it became almost a given that we would go up. I’m sure it certainly didn’t feel like that to the squad, but as a supporter we just got used to winning and then comes the expectation that we will win most games.
Does that make the feeling any less enjoyable? The football wasn’t bad, but certainly nothing like what we are currently witnessing.
2009/10. Enjoyable – yes. Entertaining – yes. Last minute winners – yes. But the fact the opponents were of such lowly calibre (Leeds aside) it became hard to experience the unbridled glee that comes with enjoying these wins. Not sure I could really get to enthralled about Yeovil away…
2010/11. Enter the season, enter the Jackson. He of a Simeon persuasion and Derby at home. This season had unexpected success with the same swashbuckling approach we had in League One. For me, this season comes very close to top spot, simply because no one expected us to do what we did. The retention of most of the squad and cute acquisition of others all came together to create one glorious glorious season, all managed by ‘he who shall not be named’. His ‘ne’er say die’ approach endeared us to the neutral and fan alike.
2014/15. As seasons go, this was up there! The best way to win promotion, surely through a Wembley win? And we turned that ground a wonderful shade of yellow. The season had started well, but swiftly petered out until Adams – and rightly so due to how stressed he looked – stepped away.
A little known Scot then descended upon us – pun intended – and boy did he grab the team by the scruff of the neck. Bassong – IN! Half-time team talks at Bournemouth now the stuff of legend and after losing to Boro in the league, was insightful enough to map out a new game plan. And after 15 minutes we all got to sit back, bask in yellow, holla out ‘On the Ball City’ and simply enjoy every single minute.
2018/19. So this brings me onto, for me, our best season. And I’ll checklist why it’s the greatest:
- We were nowhere near favourites to even get promoted let alone win the league
- The football we played was sensational
- Last-minute winners AND LOTS OF THEM – you just can’t beat a last-minute winner in football
- Youth players stepping up and excelling
- Out-of-favour players joining us and instantly becoming heros – Krul, Leitner and Rhodes
- Farke’s wink and Lambert’s red
So for me, it’s without doubt the best season we have ever had. But, I’d love to hear your thoughts below. In these days of self isolation – let’s get some debate going and stay in touch with each other.
The Yellow Army is strong.
OTBC
Hi Martin.
I’m going to have to cheat here and pick a top three, in reverse order..
1993/4: the absolute peak and unfortunately the start of the quick collapse of what might loosely be called the Stringer/Walker era. Carrow Road was a cauldron.
2018/19: Totally agree with your reasoning here. A joyous season.
2010/11 is my winner though just by a short head,
I think it comes down to personals. I went away a few times that season and didn’t see us lose once, We comprehensively d*cked the Binners and as you mention the Simeon moment, I’m right behind the Barclay goal so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Okay we all went double ape$hit.
Poor old Robbie.
And then the Portsmouth clincher in the now-gone Railway Tavern in Coltishall where half the village turned out. That man Jackson again. A couple of friends I was with that night are no longer with us so I guess sentiment rears its head a bit.
Definitely my favourite in a close race!
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Hi Martin.
I have some great memories of watching the Portsmouth game in a pub in Bristol with a few fellow South West Canaries. I turned down the opportunity to go to the match as I think it was a mid week game – what a fool!
My memory of the Derby game was sitting at the in laws in the Wye Valley on a scorching day with 5 Live sports extra blaring. Cue lots of jumping up and down and laughing at Robbie Savage when the commentary switched back to Carrow Road!
What a great memory of a game for you.
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Wonderful feel good read . All excellent seasons, but my favourite doesn’t make the cut.
2011-12
Written off as relegation certainties by everyone outside the club after rising up from League One. A slow start seeming to confirm our status.
A pivotal first away win at Bolton with the winner from our talisman.
Holt scoring in front of the Kop
Regularly beating our peers either home or away or both.
Players with little or no Prem experience stepping up .. Morison, Tierney, Fox, Ward, E. Bennett, Johnson, Whitbread, Martin , Wilbraham and Holt.
Reaching safety in the Prem ..by mid March…confirmed with a win over Wolves March 24th .
An Easter Monday win at Spurs with Elliot Bennett’s goal of the season
Steve Morison’s late equaliser at the Emirates to shush all the critics
Alby’s goal at Fulham..the ultimate ‘good pro’
Foot off the gas time towards the end…but a 1-6 to Man City didn’t matter. Enjoy the ride because, unlike other Prem seasons, we had actually done the job..
A final day win over Villa and celebrations.
Brilliant post season tribute vs Celtic to Adam Drury
For me, that was the season I felt most proud to be a fan.
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Hi Patrick. A great season indeed! I deliberated long and hard about whether to include it and I just fell on the side of leaving it. My decision was mainly that it was a season that ended with us mid-table, ergo nothing to celebrate as such, but You have rekindled some great memories. Oh how I cheered in the pub (on my own) when Holt scored v Liverpool and I remember watching the scores come in from a hotel in Roskopf as we beat Spurs.
On reflection, perhaps it should be in there.
Thanks for reading
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Gotta be the 1958/59 cup run. I was 15 years old and football mad, and the city in fact the whole of Norfolk, went cup crazy there was yellow and green every where. I remember skipping school for the day and joining a queue for a ticket half way up the hill towards Carrow Works. The replay at Luton we listened to on the school wireless, all lessons were stopped. In those far off standing days the crowds for the home games were enormous we were packed in like sardines. There was still a lot of post war drabness around and that cup run was just the tonic that we all needed.
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C’mon Cutty you remember Boudicca FC versus the Roman all-stars in 350AD or whenever. The fixture took place somewhere near Colchester I think. You’d know as you were there.
Despite the shield wall in defence and intelligent chariot runs from deep, Boudicca lost about 1,200-2,500. Almost as bad as our current goal difference.
Seriously everybody of a certain age speaks so highly about the 59 Cup run that I am nobody to disparage it. They must have been great times indeed.
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Ah the ‘59ers. A period I would have loved to have been part of. My father in law (Man Utd fan) does however remember it well and speaks very highly of us.
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I’m with you Herr Cutz. I can still name the team from Nethercott/Kennon through to Brennan at number 11. Much easier in those days of course, since we only had 11. No substitutes for either injury or tactical reasons. I was at Sheffield when Ken Nethercott dislocated his shoulder, and played on in goal making a number of one-handed saves. If he had gone off injured, Bobby Brennan would have gone in goal. As it was, he scored the equaliser that brought the Blades back to Carrow Road for the replay.
I also had to listen to the Spurs game at school, during a double period biology lesson if I remember rightly, on my sisters large portable radio (I think it was pre-transistor, and used valves instead, with a very heavy nine volt battery), “borrowed” without her knowing. The teacher let us listen, because he was a fan, too.
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For me, always look back on 2001/02 with fondness as it seemed to mark a real turning point for the club after years of dismal fayre.
That pre season I thought we could possibly do something having spent a fair amount of money and signed a real maverick in Librra, of course the opening day thumping at Millwall soon dispelled that!
But before long Worthy had turned us into an effective unit, the team was workmanlike but had some proper characters and some real quality in Green, Kenton, Mulryne and Roberts.
So many great memories, including that final day against Stockport (bloody hell this really was a long time ago!) plus the play off games with Wolves and of course the Cardiff final.
It’s a shame that Worthy isn’t that fondly remembered (or so it seems to me) and I fully accept his final years weren’t great. But to get us into the play offs and then to win the league two years later was incredible really – or “triffic” as Worthy would say.
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Hard to choose, but probably 2010/11. Holt’s late winner at Scunthorpe very early in season and thinking “we can survive being back in Championship”! But to crown it all — Jackson goal versus Derby. Robbie Savage milking it as he left the pitch, thinking The Rams had p*ssed on our parade. Then sheer unadulterated joy. Total madness. Tears! The lot! Biggest football rush I’ve ever had, so far — even beats Play Off win. The Portsmouth game was superb, but my lasting memory was being on train from Southampton to Portsmouth and getting updates as Boro sank Cardiff. A fair few City fans on train, mostly with big silly grins on our faces. We just knew we’d win at Fratton Park. Happy days!
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