One of the first to throw his hand skywards when the shout went out for some MFW guest blogs was Nick Buck – part of the #NCFC Twitter community. It’s his first time so…
I am new so please treat me gently!
I’ll start with with what is currently, a vastly overused phrase – ‘These are [indeed] unprecedented times’
We all know that, we have seen and heard about many strange things over the last few weeks – social distancing, lockdown, face masks in the street, daily updates on infection and, very sadly, the loss of life.
So, while we are preoccupied with matters of life and death and the safety of our loved ones, football is important but not that important. I miss it, I am sure we all miss it, but at the moment it really isn’t that important.
My own Canary love affair started when aged 8-years-old. Mr Lincoln – I always called him Mr Lincoln (I think his name was James) – took me to my first home game.
To explain, Mr Lincoln wasn’t just some random bloke, he was the father-in-law of my brother, the caretaker of a school in Costessey so it happens. It was 1967, I think we played Rotherham, and he had with him a cushion which he placed through the railings at the River End near the goal. I sat on it, legs dangling pitch-side of the railings.
I think we won 1-0 but, you know what, the result really didn’t matter. It was my first game; the love affair had started.
The result was only part of it. The experience was the thing; men in hats smoking, the smell of beer and, I seem to remember, some sort of food offering, although I can’t be sure of that.
It was the crowd that absorbed me. All of those people, as many as I had ever seen in one place, gathered for that one purpose – to support their team.
I fell in love with the Yellow and Green that day, but I also fell in love with the whole experience – eleven stars (at least in my eyes) on the pitch, but a whole family of fellow fans making it, well… special.
Over the years that matchday experience has gone through a number of transformations but it remains still special. Now I don’t need Mr Lincoln, I get myself to the game, meeting up with my friends in the pub where we talk utter rubbish for a couple of hours before completing the pilgrimage to Carrow Road.
There have been occasions when matters on the pitch are not so good and has been suggested we stay in the pub. But we have never done that… not yet anyway!
I sit in the South Stand surrounded by friends and people who I don’t really know but who I’ve become familiar with – it’s special. Sometimes other fans annoy me, like the collective shout of “SHOOT” when Tettey is 40 yards out when we know he is far more likely to hit Row Z than the back of the net. That will always annoy me but, then again, I am old, and grumpy.
But it’s the chat, the inane ‘humour’ trotted out by my friends, the same old lines that still make me laugh, and those moments – a Paddon thunderbolt, a towering Holt header, a last-second Vrancic free kick… all glorious, emotion-charged moments when we score, truly special, even if I am hugged, occasionally kissed and occasionally physically damaged as a result (you know who you are!).
Okay, so I have waxed lyrical on what’s great about football, but now to the crux of the matter.
I heard a broadcaster say the other day, ‘We need to get football back for the good of the nation’; the suggestion being the season must be played to a conclusion behind closed doors, which will in turn, somehow, make us feel better.
But this is something that must be done only if you are a broadcaster, are in the media or one of the ‘businessmen’ running a club.
If you are a fan this is total nonsense and, before you suggest it, this is not a blinkered view to keep us in the Premier League. If we are relegated because the season can’t be finished, then so be it. I won’t be happy but let’s be honest, we are bottom so we have no real argument.
We will argue, and challenge, and rightly so, as will others similarly affected, but we are also bottom.
I have no interest in that soulless spectacle of my team battling on a neutral pitch somewhere, without me, without us, without the Canary family there to support them.
Who knows what could be achieved if we could be there?
So what happens next?
I really don’t know, but what I do know is that football is amazing. I love it but at the moment it really isn’t that important.
When it’s time let’s have it back, as it should be, home and away, with fans, an experience, the whole experience, the experience that I first discovered with Mr Lincoln.
My title for this piece is lighthearted. I can eat fish but it needs chips, the same as football needs fans. Without them its not football!
I thank you…!
Nick, agree with you entirely. The powers that be need to end the season, sort out the ramifications, and plan next season. The financial implications for football in general should be their main concern for the future just as health matters should be their prime concern for the present.
I suspect sir, that you are well-balanced individual who has just put into a few words what most sensible people really feel about football, and our club in particular.
It’s easy to get dragged into the circus surrounding our game but we cannot affect what will happen next. Like you, it’s Norwich and our club I support, I really don’t think I shall be watching Burnley play Southampton at Portman Road (neutral ground chosen because they are familiar to hosting games with tiny crowds and no atmosphere)
(Sorry I just couldn’t resist)
As for relegation, so long as our club survives I shall continue to support them, whatever league.
As for Sky football and it’s sycophantic circus – it’s probably goodbye from me.
Hi Andy.
I think very much along your lines, and particularly agree with you about the three-ring circus that is the PL, Sky and BT.
Before lockdown I so desperately wanted us to stay in the PL, but I am now no longer sure. I’m proud to say I have never spent a single cent on Sky and wouldn’t patronise BT either if they weren’t the only company who can provide decent Broadband in Mundesley!
Hi Nick.
Excellent, sound common sense and a great MFW debut.
So many of us are on the same sheet here and the repeated theme is that it is greed against necessary practicality. And I sure know which faction I want to win out.
Incidentally my first City match was in 1967 too – against Plymouth. I’m pretty sure we won 2-1. I reckon I must be some two years older than you so didn’t “orange box” it but of course I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d been to both West Ham and Spurs a few times before that – my version of “Mr Lincoln” comprised my dad and uncle Pete.
Talk about being a boy in a man’s world 🙂
Used to go in through the ten Bob entrance on the corner of the Barclay and City stand. Walking to the ground past the Kingsway and the Maltsters, I think it was, on the other side. Forty years later still go with same gang.
Football is nothing without your mates; people you’ve stood or sat by for years.
Lots of highs and lots of lows – these feelings can never be replaced by football played out on sterile neutral grounds without supporters. Without these, there is just no point to the sport.
Agreed.
The Kingsway was still going into the early 1990s – I found it hard to pass although when we moved to Blofield I parked at my mate’s in School Lane, we went to what was then the Mustard Pot and moved on to the Clarence. Never any trouble in the Clarence apart from one jolly old White Rose away day crew. Specialised Security’s Carl and his Alsatian sorted them out.
Football minus fans equals no football at all as you so rightly say.
ATB.
Very good. Comes across very well from a passionate yet realistic fan of football. Clearly demonstrates the importance of life and putting things in perspective. The premier league, more so than any other, has become too obsessed wiv money and those so-called intelligent people who run it should come back down off their pedestal and think more about life and the genuine fans like you, who without them are nothing.
An excellent article. Whatever happens real football happens in front of passionate home and away supporters. I fear footballers’ safety from catching the virus and taking it home to family seems to be a secondary issue to pampering to the sponsors and TV companies to keep dangling the carrot of resumption. Void the season, relegate us or whatever, but when it is safe to do so, resume footy at a full Carrow Road.
Hi Nick
Welcome to the fold of guest bloggers.
An excellent read and as with others I completely agree with your sentiment.
Last week Gary Neville was blasting the bottom 6 for their intransigence it getting the game restarted and shouting from the roof of the Sky HQ that it could only be done behind closed doors.
Now this week he is shouting out that the bottom 3 are being bullied by threats of automatic relegation if they don’t fall in line with the top 6, but who are the top 6 at present.
The suggestion of voiding the league and restarting as it was at the end of 2018/19 works in their best interests for European places.
Greed will win through in the end and I can only praise the Sheff U manager Wilder who announced yesterday any of his players that opts out of playing will have his backing for what ever reason.
That’s a first for me as Wilder is my favourite manager.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Happy VE day to all
Keep safe and well
Nailed it Nick, I’m a year or two ahead of you in that my brother took me in 1962 (I was also 8 years old) and we’ve followed similar paths in respect of our football experiences and indeed worked for the same organisation. You’re spot on in my view, no crowds = no point. We also meet up and talk a load of squit over a couple of beers and we never let the football spoil our day. Hope you’re well, stay safe. Bob B
Couldn’t agree more, Nick. Whether we get relegated or not doesn’t matter, the game should be for the fans, not the broadcasters. Football existed without them 60 or so years ago, and it can do again. Maybe without TV some of the almost empty grounds in the lower leagues might gain a few more attendees, if people start to watch their local team instead of being a Liverpool fan in Torquay, or a Man Utd fan in Gt Yarmouth. It might even bring a few more into Portaloo Road.
Great article, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Football is so much more than the 90 or so minutes on the pitch.
Excellent, Nick. A lovely smooth read.
I think I’m fast becoming a minority of one on here when I say that, yes it does matter if we are relegated without being given an opportunity to try and get out of trouble.
It matters because we worked so hard to get here, we shouldn’t just lie down and have our tummies tickled by the so called big Clubs. The article mentions the Vrancic winner last season and there were many other moments like that. Why should we just give it up?
Everyone moans about it being just about the money, but we like having that money and the opportunities that will bring. I’ll be done with it all if they try and send us down by PPG, I could just about stomach behind closed doors but neutral grounds? Not for me.
Sorry, I’ve rather digressed from the article which I really enjoyed!
Nick, you’re absolutely right. It would be dreadful to play an FA Cup quarter or semi-final in front of nobody at a sealed compound in Burton upon Trent.
I’d immediately rule out any football before August, mothball the season, accept that some players will move clubs, and plan to pick up again from the point we left off whenever it’s safe to play in front of crowds again.
If we have to nominate teams for Europe by an arbitrary deadline, fine do it on points per game, but let’s finish this season properly later in 2020 or 2021 before starting the next one
7 out of 10 on debut Nick.
Suspect the manager might bench you for the next game though, claiming rotation.
Totally agree on we love our football but it isn’t important right now.
What a shame greed, money and capitalism drives the nation.