Archives Index

I’ll get onto the Norwich City stuff in a bit (it’s not as if it’s been an uneventful week) but it wouldn’t be right to start anywhere else but Copenhagen. The scenes witnessed last night were among the most harrowing I can ever recall watching as a football fan. They were among the most harrowing […]

Given the hue and cry on social media (and MFW) this week around the next move of one Emi Buendia, I intended, for what little it was worth, to offer my two penneth this morning. I even penned a few opening lines yesterday afternoon. And then Paddy Davitt goes and ruins it all. Twitter: 5:23PM: Jun […]

As European finals go, last night’s was a good one and regardless of what any of us think about the way Man City and Chelsea have acquired their footballing might, there was a pleasing to and fro to the game that’s not always the case in major finals. As a spectacle, it trumped the ‘richest […]

“The Play-Offs are gloriously British. If your team isn’t involved it’s all about choosing which team you hate more and screaming for them to lose. Lots of opportunities for visceral catharsis.” The words of a wise man. Henry Winter? Paddy Barclay? Brian Glanville? Nope. Instead, from the keyboard of our own Andy Head – him […]

It goes without saying that Chelsea fans will obviously have the hump this morning – VAR et al – but name me another set of fans who will not have been overjoyed to watch Leicester lift the FA Cup yesterday. Supporters of the five other European Super League wannabees will merely mock the Blues for […]

To say that Norwich Talk – the YouTube arm of MyFootballWriter – came about by accident is a slight exaggeration, but it was a phone call with the then communications director of Norwich City FC in early 2019 that brought about its creation. Rick Waghorn (owner of MFW) and I had spoken previously of the […]

And so the curtain closes on season 2020-21; one of the most surreal, arguably the most surreal, in the club’s history. That City have been so brilliant yet so few of us have actually seen the team play live will forever stick in the craw. Imagine the pre-match atmosphere for the Bournemouth home game with […]

Days like those don’t come along very often. Only nine times in the club’s history have we lifted a trophy – ten if you count the 2015 Play-Off Final – and two of those occurred before I was even a glint in my dad’s eye. Talking of whom… our post-match phone chat last night was […]

Nearly there, right? I mean, it is conceivable that Watford could win their final two games and, in doing so, overturn our superior goal difference, but after seeing how City negotiated a tricky away day at one of the Championship’s form teams, it feels all in hand. The wobble, if you could call it that, […]

It’s never a great sign when one of your centre-backs and your goalkeeper are by some distance men of the match. But it was that kind of night. Maybe Grant Hanley and Tim Krul were able to better withstand the effects of alcohol than their younger colleagues, or perhaps they even had the resolve to […]

We did it! We only bloody did it! And there’s not a single thing Graham Scott, Jonathan Woodgate or Ben Pearson can do to either change or spoil that. While the plucky™ little Cherries still have the not inconsiderable obstacle of the playoffs to contend with before they can even contemplate life back in the […]

The trouble with 7-0 wins is that they set the bar impossibly high. And it wasn’t just the seven goals. It was the quality of performance; the ebb and flow; the relentlessness; the precision. What followed was only ever going to be a pale imitation in terms of its beauty. While some were expecting another […]

Wow. Where to start, other than to say this really this is the ultimate test of not too high, not too low. So forget that. 99.9 per cent of City fans will need scraping off the ceiling this morning after, arguably, the most exhilarating 93 minutes of NCFC football in all of our lifetimes. As […]

In anyone’s book, a point away at Deepdale in those most trying of circumstances should be seen as one gained, and it was, but try telling that to the good folk of the Canary Nation. For all the bravado mustered upon the final blast of Dean Whitestone’s whistle (more on where I’d like to shove […]

All good things… etc, but it’s no less disappointing when those good thing do come to an end. And that nine-game winning run was a good thing. A bloody marvellous thing. That we let slip a couple of points yesterday was not the end of the world, especially after said run has opened up a […]

“We can still catch Norwich”. Ivan Toney. Sky Sports. March 12, 2021. Dream on, Ivan. In fairness to Brentford’s finest, he was only saying what every pro is conditioned to say and, besides, said gent has a certain swagger that probably has him believing that anything is possible. But he’s wrong, just as his manager […]

Ivan Toney is a confident chap. Bullish even. Those who watched his post-match interview on Sky last Friday following Brentford’s 1-0 win over Blackburn will know what I mean. Before presenting himself with the Man of the Match award (he would also have awarded himself the trophy) Ivan got the hump when the Sky Sports […]

I’ve been reluctant to look too far ahead for obvious reasons but even the lads at Archant are dipping their toes into the water, so I may as well put in my two-penneth. I’m talking of course of the club’s chances of making 2021-22 more than another single-season stopover in the Premier League. All caveated […]

There was a comment from Ben Gibson in the week, posted on Instagram in the aftermath of the Brentford win, that summed up perfectly the mindset in the City camp right now. “We have to win at the weekend so it isn’t wasted.” That this conversation had been had was confirmed after yesterday’s game by […]

He’s not everyone’s cup of tea and, I suspect even by his own admission, his Premier League experience was his season horribilis. Born to score goals he may be, but not so much when the Premier League is home. He wasn’t alone of course but I have often pondered what may have happened last season […]

I trust we all woke up this morning feeling fine… Emi will generate the headlines. Of course he will. And why shouldn’t he. It was a brilliant goal. But at the heart of City’s fine win over the best the Championship has to throw at us was a quartet whose influence on all that happens […]

And the wins just keep on coming. The myth, not helped by people like me, that City sometimes buckle when opponents put it up ’em should no longer even be a thing. Wycombe did everything, literally everything, to try and do a Jonesy on us but, despite a valiant attempt, came up short. Not only […]

“That was a tough ol’ go, Boy!” The words of Mr Derek Gowers (aka Dad) on the phone to Gower Junior at around 5pm yesterday. As ever, he nailed in one small sentence what I struggle to do in 800 words. It was indeed a tough ol’ go, in every sense, but that City came […]

This was 2018-19 revisited. Attacking thrust with a Finn and an Argentinian at its heart interspersed with with some heart-stopping defensive scares, mostly of City’s own making. And my god it was fun. That’s not to say it was either part of Daniel Farke’s plan or is something we should yearn for a return to, […]

“I wasn’t pleased with the mistakes today and they were the reasons we lost the game.” Daniel Farke was right. It was two very preventable and careless errors that cost City the game. Of more concern though should be the fact that even taking those two errors out of the equation, at no point did […]

The #NCFC timeline last night from 8pm onwards was not for the faint-hearted. In fact, if for any reason you’d been incommunicado from the outside world but had accidentally stumbled across ‘Norwich City’, you’d assume this was a football club in crisis. As it transpired, City’s only crime was to draw a game of football […]

The thing about Jose Mourinho is that you know his intention is to make it all about him. With Neil Warnock I’m never quite sure. Mourinho does it expertly for all manner of reasons – to take the pressure off his players and to inflate his own ego among them – but Colin… who knows. […]

An FA Cup exit away at a useful Championship opponent wasn’t a disaster but was still tinged with disappointment. While we may not have the illustrious history of our nearest and dearest in this competition, we have, along the way, triggered some pretty damn good FA Cup memories. We only have to cast the mind […]

It’s hard to find a new set of words to describe that one, just as it’s difficult to keep a lid on the expectation levels floating around in the wide-open spaces of my head. But I’ll try. In his MFW match report, James Colman used ‘boa constrictor’, ‘an irresistible force’ and ‘remorseless’ in his appraisal […]

To the uninitiated, this may appear another case of Norwich just doing enough, and making tough work of a job that should have been comfortable. And the uninitiated would be right… to a point. But it ignores the fact that Daniel Farke was minus the services of ten players who have legitimate shouts for a […]

That these are weird, surreal times is clear. Things once considered fringe have now filtered into the mainstream, so hopefully it won’t come as too much of a surprise to read a piece about Ipswich Town on a site that is exclusively Norwich City. Please bear with me. I should loathe them of course and, […]

At the end of what had been a truly horrific week – just another in a very long line – it was again left to Daniel Farke’s men to put a collective smile on the Canary Nation. And they delivered… again. While to some, games of football appear non-consequential as the world struggles to contain […]

To those of us of a certain age, the very mention of Kevin Keelan conjures up images of a figure clad in green who was athleticism, bravery and heroism personified. And the canary on his chest made him our hero. He was unique. An enigmatic figure who, in his own way, managed to epitomise the […]

As the song goes… 🎵 Please don’t take my Emi away. His latest masterclass may have won us three points and perhaps pushed his price a million or two pounds higher, but it’s hardly going have deterred the recruitment teams of the big boys. Any waverers – and I’m not sure why there would be […]

Well, that was disappointing. Not the apocalypse, but certainly disappointing. In the end, in the crazy world of Championship football, City were lucky to escape with a point, but that would have been harsh in the extreme. We may not have been at our fluent best for the full 95 but there was more than […]

It wasn’t the Boxing Day we had hope for obviously, but then again we don’t really do Boxing Days. We’ve only just got the hang of opening days of the season, so to expect us to move on to Boxing Day wins so quickly was probably a step too far. Couple that with the wearing […]

It’s hard to recall a time, or specifically a year, when the role of Norwich City Football Club in our lives has been quite so pronounced. The three-month hiatus as Covid did its worst was a reminder to us all of its place in our hearts and minds and even the grimmest of relegations was, […]

And the wins keep on coming. At what point is it okay to start dreaming again? Dreaming of what I’m not quite sure – because the journey is infinitely more enjoyable than the prize itself – but I’ve started to anyway. How can you not? Sky’s commentary team did their best to make this one […]

And another… City’s third 2-1 victory in the space of a week was the clearest sign yet that this is a bona fide promotion charge. Still over half the season to go, but this felt big. Reading were of course without two of their big names in Lucas Joao and Yakou Meite (Sky Sports were very […]

I was tempted to do a cut and paste job from my Thursday morning piece; the one that told of City again overcoming adversity to squeeze out a narrow 2-1 over Forest, sealed by a deflected Emi Buendia shot from outside the box. Okay, so I’d have had to smooth out the bit about Hughton […]

Three points clear at the top of the Championship in the midst of the worst injury crisis most City fans can recall. In terms of Daniel Farke’s achievements since his arrival here in May 2017, I’d argue this particular one tops the lot. To have prepared, cajoled, nurtured and steered this stricken group through the […]

That little glimpse of normality for the 2000 must have felt good. Even for those of us unable to make the pilgrimage, there was something comforting and ‘normal’ about On the Ball City echoing around Carrow Road in those few excitable seconds before kick-off and the accompanying buzz. So too hearing those same voices coming […]

If ever there was a game that needed to be written-off and consigned to the history books as quick as possible… A rotten defeat on a rotten night in the half-light of a rotten little ground under the auspices of a rotten referee, and all played out amid a cacophony of 1000 screeching, yowling voices. […]

That was a tough one to take in the circumstances. In the midst of the worst injury crisis most of us have seen as City fans, to have gone so close to winning the three points against a thoroughly decent Coventry team was an outstanding effort. If the game had just meandered out to a […]

When City lost at home to angry Sean Dyche’s Burnley back in the bad old days of Project Restart I suggested we open talks with Notts County fans to borrow their song. It really did feel like the wheel had fallen off our barrow. We (typically) lost that game, ended it with nine men, were […]

You know it’s your day when for the first time in living memory an opponent’s successfully converted penalty kick is chalked off because it was deemed a double-hit. Not for the first time this season, a moment of good fortune tilted the odds in City’s favour, and from thereon in it felt like it had […]

I’ve long searched for an excuse to tell one of my more interesting footballing tales (most are far from it) and Kenny McLean, god bless him, has finally given me one. It’s a faint, dubious, tenuous link, but it’ll do and you’re going to hear it whether you like it or not 😉 It is […]

GG: Zine 4 is imminent I understand JP? Don’t you think the City faithful has been through enough? 🙂 I jest of course – when you describe these little beauties as some of the best stuff ACN has produced I tend to agree, although the flags, banners and crowd-surfers may disagree. I don’t really want […]

2020 has been universally cr.@p. Day after day of doom and gloom. So my god we were due a good one. Yesterday was a great one. Of course, there was the small matter of the free world being spared another four years of lies, corruption and tyranny from a fake-tanned narcissist who lacks class, charm, […]

It feels a little trite to be writing about a 0-0 draw with Millwall as the world teeters on the brink while the US decides whether or not to give a second term to an orange, thin-skinned, racist man baby. But I’ll give it a go. We could all do with a distraction from that […]

I try my best to avoid the trap of finding parallels between the start of this season and September/October 2018 – the club is, after all, in a very different place right now – but how was it possible to ignore Marco Stiepermann splitting the Brizzle defense wide open for Teemu Pukki’s opener yesterday in […]

It may not have been the performance we’d hoped for but I don’t think too many City fans will be unhappy with last night’s point. While performance levels are far currently removed from those we’ve become accustomed to in the second tier under Daniel Farke, the fact City are jogging along nicely at not far […]

That City came within a whisker (or three whiskers) of earning three draws and three points this week, as opposed to nine, is a reminder of just how fine the margins are. And that City are just a point from second place in the Championship while operating at only around 50 percent of their potential […]

Two late winners in the space of four days. We could get used to this. This one had a clean sheet chucked in for good measure. Yet for long spells this had Derby written all over it as Aitor Karanka did what Aitor Karanka does, which is set up a team with the intended aim […]

Those who genuinely believed this was going to be a straightforward Project Return were always destined for disappointment. The Championship isn’t like that. We should know. And having one of the most, if not the most, technically able squad in the Championship counts for nothing. We should know that too. Yet we never learn. The […]

The wait goes on. The carrot dangled in the form of 1000 of our brethren being allowed into Carrow Road to watch City’s home game with Preston has been unceremoniously whipped away. A return to our second home, whether it be in the form of 1000 or 27000 guinea pigs, seems as far away now […]

That went well. We still seem to be in grip of Murphy’s Law; all part of the unhealthy hangover from that cursed Premier League campaign. For everyone outside the Canary Nation there will have been comedic value in Teemi Pukki slipping and sliding around the Barclay End penalty spot, before contriving, double-footed, to somehow clip […]

There was always a danger this most abnormal of transfer windows could explode in our faces. With five, young, highly prized gems sparkling in our own shop window, this was never going to pass off peacefully. Or end well. Yet because things had remained relatively calm, we’d all been lulled us all into a false […]

“Unfortunately, on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful”. A line I’ve (unsurprisingly) been on the receiving end of on numerous occasions – usually in my professional life but occasionally when hoping to attend an ‘event’, which on this occasion was a football match. While I missed out, one thousand of our brethren didn’t and […]

Norwich City Women kick off their new season on Sunday with an away game at Cambridge United. Ahead of the big KO, I’ve been chatting to their new head coach, Shaun Howes… First things first, and I’m glad I waited until you’d done the Q&A with the club’s official site. Nothing worse than being asked […]

It may not have been especially pretty but that mattered not one jot. What mattered was experiencing that winning feeling again. From top to bottom it was needed. From Delia to match-day steward. From super-fan to part-timer. From NR1 to New Zealand Canaries. That feeling of relief was palpable. No less than 192 days have […]

It was disappointing – let’s not pretend otherwise – but yesterday’s 3-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road will hopefully have little bearing on what happens in six days’ time in Huddersfield. *Hopefully* That’s not to say it wouldn’t have given us all a much-needed boost. To have had 17 players unavailable is quite the mitigation, but […]

It’s not often you get the chance to watch almost four hours of City playing live, so it would have been rude not to… even if their were friendlies. That the club was even able to field two full-strength teams without relying on some under-23s is an achievement in itself – but they did, even […]

I can never get too excited over pre-season wins. Essentially they’re just exercises in honing the players’ fitness and putting some miles in the legs. This is why, in a Victor Meldrew style, I didn’t read too much into the 6-0 win over MK Dons at Colney on Friday afternoon. Of course, nothing bad can […]

So, the players return to training tomorrow, just three weeks and a day from the guns falling silent on our Premier League experiment of 2019/20. Weird times. That gives Team Farke 26 days to lick this sorry bunch into shape and get their bodies and, more importantly, minds ready for a Championship campaign that promises […]

Paddy Davitt’s inside track on the Jamal Lewis affair was fascinating. If you haven’t read it, it’s here. Paddy told beautifully the story of how the mighty Liverpool thought that ‘desperate-for-cash’ little Norwich City would be ripe for a quick-and-dirty deal for Jamal, given how needy they’d obviously be given their recent relegation. £8 million […]

After a busy couple of weeks when it was only ins and not a single out, the chatter has inevitably turned to those destined to depart the City walls. Liverpool were first to show their hand, with a modest £10 million bid for Jamal Lewis, although it sounds like one of those emails that Stuart […]

It’s clear that Liverpool want Jamal Lewis. That much we do know. They see him as the ideal cover for Andy Robertson – the Scot they signed from Hull in July 2017 but for whom they still have no natural replacement should he get injured. James Milner does a good job there, but he’s… James […]

It’s only seven days since the nightmare that was the 2019/20 season ended, but, oddly, it does feel like an age ago. Just as well really. Part of this is down to the club’s insistence that we move forward, prepare for the new season, and not dwell on the wrongs of last season. Which is […]

Thank God it’s over. You only have to put up with my whining one more time. I guess it was only fitting that five a half weeks of footballing torture should end with the biggest spanking of the lot. That we somehow ended up content that it was “only five” says everything about just how […]

So, for one final time. A season that promised so much, yet delivered only a big, fat, Family Fortunes-type UH UH. At least when we headed to Anfield on August 9, we had hopes and dreams. Okay, so there was a little bit of fear over the level of damage the reigning European champions may […]

There’s no escaping the paucity of City’s performances since Project Restart became more than just a project. Even the most yellow and green-tinged, happy-clapping, Delia-adoring optimist must be able to admit that the quality of performances have been dire and that something has gone badly wrong? The fact that some refuse to get fired up […]

♫ I had a wheelbarrow, the wheel fell off… ♫ So sang the NCFC fans, and never had it rung truer. Okay, so by NCFC I mean Notts County, and I’m not even sure it’s a song they sing anymore, but for one day only – maybe one season only – it should replace On […]

At least it’s done now. But it did feel like death by a thousand cuts. A slow, painful, inexorable slide back to whence we came, with not the merest hint of resistance. These are difficult and surreal times – and of course, there are far more important things going on than our football team getting […]

That we’re all slightly chirpier this morning having witnessed an improved City performance says a lot about the level of the current bar. But we are. And it was. It’s hellishly thin gruel though if our spirits are lifted by what was ultimately another error-strewn defeat against some very mediocre relegation rivals. But, there’s no […]

How was your Super Saturday? Even those who were able to resist the call of the pub may have been tempted to turn to drink after City’s latest post-lockdown offering. But let’s forget the performance level for a minute and look at some numbers. *Look away now if you’re of a nervous disposition. One goal […]

Remember when they told us one of the drivers behind Project Restart was to boost our morale? Well, how’s your morale this morning? Since that first ball was kicked against Southampton, it’s not just been the stadiums that have been soulless. City’s lack of quality has been laid bare for the watching nation to see […]

In terms of performance level, that was light years ahead of the first two post-lockdown offerings. Against Southampton and Everton there was little to excite and even less to be proud of, but not so last night. Okay, so it may have ended in that glorious, heart-breaking failure in which our club seems to specialise, […]

The three-month hiatus, during which time football became a virtual irrelevance, played a cruel trick with the collective mind. It convinced us the “little miracle” of which Daniel Farke spoke at length was do-able. And no football – with far more important things going on in the world – meant the agonising and the navel-gazing […]

Our friends at Along Come Norwich have just launched fanzine number three. Having just read it, I can tell this one’s a corker (the first ‘chapter’ aside). If you fancy it, there’s a link at the bottom of this Q&A with the zine’s brains, Mr Jon Punt… So… up to number three, Jon! This must […]

Last night’s breaking news – that a City player had tested positive for Covid-19 – was the denouement of what had been the most miserable and troubling week imaginable. First things first, and it goes without saying (even though I am saying it) that everyone’s best wishes are with the player and his family. The […]

In last Sunday’s column, I tried – unsuccessfully I should add – to dream up a set of results that would, upon the resumption of Premier League battle, see City haul themselves clear of the bottom three. Even armed with every good luck charm in the book it was nigh on impossible to dream up […]

So, in theory, depending on what the TV schedule throws up, this time in three weeks I could be musing over City’s game with Southampton. Just imagine if it’s a win I’m writing about. Just imagine. Okay, so there’ll be no descriptions of Carrow Road reverberating when City inevitably take an early lead – this […]

I don’t tend to use ‘From The Archives’ for my own columns – they’re wholly undeserving – but given that it’s five years to the day that we all descended upon Wembley for that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon against Boro, I thought this may be worth another airing. Written early the following morning, so please forgive the […]

Despite being not much further forward in knowing exactly where, when, and even how, the players returned to Colney this week. While it was good to see them doing Colney stuff, albeit in a socially distanced and responsible way, the fact there remain so many unknowns makes it tricky to get too excited. It felt […]

As is the wont of someone in lockdown who writes, eats and breaths football, in the absence of any live action I’ve been gorging on the retro stuff the TV companies have been churning out in their attempt to sate our footballing appetite. Among the offerings have been ITV’s Saturday teatime ‘classics’, some Match of […]

Before I begin, if you’re a Liverpool fan, look away now. I incensed so many of them last Sunday they’re not going to find this one any more soothing. Just go. Leeds fans too. And to that West Brom bloke who has questioned my parentage on numerous occasions over the last week … I really […]

It’s hardly a surprise that Project Restart has divided opinion. Everything does that today. Literally everything. Fuelled by social media’s raison d’etre of giving every Tom, Dick and Gary a voice on every conceivable talking point, the modern trend is to take a side, dig your trench deep and refuse to budge. Invariably the trenches […]

When football eventually returns, it looks like City can expect a right royal kicking, metaphorically speaking at least. Maybe not so much when it first begins, given that it’s almost certain to be behind closed doors, but with the stadiums full of fans we look set to be the pariahs and be given the full […]