Edward Couzens-Lake

“I remember Lee Power ordering 40 vodka and oranges and bringing them to the tables; Robert Chase’s face was a picture! On some of the away trips, that bus resembled a disco on wheels at times. So yes, we enjoyed ourselves. But we were professional and we kept fit, trained hard to get the excess out of our systems.”

The tradition then, of course, was not to have them stood on the pitch holding up a scarf or shirt but, rather, sat at a battered old table, pen in hand and smile on face with the manager and chairman stood behind, gurning away in practiced fashion for the camera.

Dave Stringer and Big Duncan are primed, ready and as good as anyone in the country at dealing with the sort of centre forwards we are used to seeing every week, the likes of Alan Woodward, John Hickton, Mick Jones and Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, all sinew and elbow, the very best that English centre forwards can offer.

Professional footballers, despite what they may say in public, do love to talk about money and the class of 1992 were no different. One of the ex-Canaries I spoke to said he was chatting to some Manchester United players after our first game against them that season and, inevitably, talk of wages came up.

I could do a long list of footballers who the Canaries have plucked from either obscurity or near footballing oblivion who have, in time, embraced the opportunity given to them to prove themselves, who have felt wanted and have, in turn, wanted to be here.

“A season of struggle beckons for Norwich…”, reckoned one old sage in whatever old rag I picked up the next day, adding, “… if the Canaries play like that for the rest of this season then Nigel Worthington and his men will be looking forward to trips to the likes of Port Vale, Northampton and Blackpool next season”.

Geoffrey Watling had been appointed as the new club chairman in 1957 and had declared that his objective was top flight football. When Norwich appointed Ron Saunders as their new manager in the summer of 1969 it did so with the caveat that he got the club promoted to the First Division within three years.

The people in power are too afraid that, for example, thousands of Norwich fans who would normally get themselves along to Carrow Road to see their team play Brentford will all think, as one, “…no, sod that, I’m going to watch Real Madrid against Barcelona on the telly instead”.

Pitch invasions these days are often instigated and precipitated by violence and provocation. No-one found the actions of the Hibernian fans who invaded the pitch at Hampden Park during last season’s Scottish FA Cup Final delightful. Yes, the Hibs fans were joyful at their win. But they were more content in goading their opposite numbers with it.

I was lucky enough to spend time in the company of Kevin Bond not so long ago. Much of the talk was, naturally enough, about his father. And I wasn’t particularly surprised when he said to me in the course of our conversation, “…we never did much defensive training under Dad”.

Luton paid Norwich a very decent sum for Cameron McGeehan’s services last year and, with him now attracting more than serious attention from a number of Championship sides, Norwich will, when he does move on again, benefit again by the sell-on fee that will almost certainly have been included as part of the deal.

The obvious question that I and, as it turned out, i journalist, Huge Godwin wanted to ask Lansdown was why, or when, he intended to just follow the oligarch lead and buy success – in this case, for his rugby club by also, by definition, for the football club as well?

Hansbury, unlike Theoklitos, stuck around and stuck it out, despite his nightmare debut. And it paid off for him. He ended his Norwich career having made 84 senior appearances for the club.

There are plenty of professional footballers out there who dislike the game and the entire industry with a very high degree of passion. They do it because it’s their job and they have been fortunate enough to be rather good at doing it.

No wonder Alex Neil smiles whenever he is asked about him. He knows Godfrey could go on to be a special player, one who already, in his own mind at least, will be convinced he is ready for a run in the Norwich City first-team this season.

“Whatever else people might have thought of Reid, he is still one of only two managers to have won a major trophy with the Canaries, an achievement that has eluded many of the more famous names that have followed him at the club…

Sheffield Wednesday then. A “proper” football club. It’s a term I often use in conversation about the game without really knowing quite what I mean by it. A mix, I suppose, of the club in questions history, their ground and the many and varying other ingredients that make up the whole football club package. You […]

McCormack’s overall record at Fulham is 100 appearances with 42 goals scored. An overall record of 2.38 games per goal. Now that’s not bad, not bad at all, but it does reflect these occasional purple patches he has had in his career, notably last season and 2008/09.