Be it the new or the old Den, or at Carrow Road, like Friday, games against Millwall hold plenty of happy memories for the boys in yellow and green.
One of the most important came on our visit to Millwall during the run-in in 2018-19 when captain Christoph Zimmermann’s bullet header led the Canaries to a valuable 3-1 away win. It was the third in eight consecutive wins on that relentless march to the Championship title.
Mind you, it took a while for City to record their first-ever win at Millwall. It was another 3-1 and came on 26 February 1949, our tenth visit to The Den. It was a result that ended a miserable run, including 6-0 and 6-1 defeats.
The home form, during that period, was much better with just one defeat in the first eight.
One game in particular that stands out was on 29 October 1938. Millwall won 2-0 that day at Carrow Road, a City defeat that was witnessed by reigning British Monarch, King George VI.
It was the first time a King of the realm had attended a game outside of the top flight.
King George saw a Norwich squad that was destined for relegation and it would be another 30 years before we faced Millwall again in the second division.
Before that, there would be a couple of lows, in particular, the 1956-57 season when City ended the season rock bottom of the English professional pyramid and had to rely on their fellow clubs for re-election. A 5-1 thrashing by Millwall was a particular low point in an awful season.
In 1971-72, etched in history as one of City’s finest, Millwall were one of our rivals for those coveted top two positions and they took three points (in those days it was two for a win) beating us 2-1 at The Den followed by a 2-2 at Carrow Road.
Despite these impressive scores versus Ron Saunders’ eventual champions, Millwall agonisingly missed out by a single point, finishing third behind Norwich and Birmingham.
An early-season defeat to the Lions in August 1985 continued a disappointing start for the pre-season favourites. Class would soon show and the title challenge was in full flow by the time Millwall arrived in Norwich for a pre-Christmas clash. The 6-1 victory was a highlight among many that year and the largest win in a run of 18 league games undefeated.
Millwall finally joined us in the top division in 1988-89. The away game that season was notable for a couple of reasons: it was only the second time (and the first away from home) that a Norwich league game had featured live on TV (the Big Match on ITV) and it was the first time City had played a league game on a Sunday.
Both facts are unbelievable in today’s football environment but the game itself was a classic settled in the last minute by a spectacular Robert Fleck Volley after City had been pegged back to 2-2 after taking a two-goal lead.
We are unbeaten against Millwall in the top division with two wins and two draws in the four games between 1988 and 1990.
There was a 2-1 FA Cup win on 5 February 1992. It was our only meeting in the Cup and an important one, coming in the fourth round, part of a cup run that ended in the semi-finals, when we lost 1-0 to Sunderland.
It hasn’t always been great against Millwall though.
There was a dismal 4-0 opening day defeat of the 2001-02 season although City would recover with both sides making the end-of-season play-offs.
Then there was also another 4-0 loss early in 2017-18 – a watershed moment in the early days of Daniel Farke and an eye-opener for the young German coach, City would never be quite as poor under him as they were that day in South London.
Before Farke, there was a massive 6-1 win on Boxing Day 2014, however it wasn’t enough to save Neil Adams. It was his final home game and two away defeats later he was gone. His replacement, Alex Neil, led City to a 4-1 away win later in March 2015 – a 10-1 aggregate win over the 2014-15 season.
And we can’t have a Norwich/Millwall article without reference to 10 November 2018 and a comeback of epic proportions.
City were dead and buried at 3-2 down – after Mo Leitner had earlier given City a 2-1 lead – as the clock moved into injury time, but Farke’s vintage never accepted defeat.
First of all Jordan Rhodes netted a late equalizer before, in the 97th minute, Teemu Pukki sent Carrow road into meltdown with a fine, late late winner.
The finest comeback at Carrow Road – at least it was until Forest a month or so later but that’s another article for another day.
In our 2020-21 title-winning campaign, things were a little less excitable with two goalless draws!
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Also, listen to Al and his mate, Val Tolhurst, discuss all of the above and more on their ‘Al and Val’s’ podcast, available on iTunes and Spotify. [Just click on the links to listen].
I think it fair to say that in the 1956-57 season City did not end the season rock bottom of the English professional pyramid. They ended bottom of the old Third Division South and faced reelection with Swindon. as well as Tranmere and Crewe of the old Third Division North, both of whom finished on considerably fewer points than did City