Martin Penney

I had a strange education during my formative years. I was as happy as the proverbial sandboy at Barley Lane Junior in Chadwell Heath and sat my eleven plus there. No word of a lie, my pass level was so high that an IQ tester came along to see me and the result couldn’t have […]

A journey of 10,000 miles starts with a single step according to Mao Tse-Tung. My trip to Carrow Road on Saturday was about 9,998 miles short of that but nonetheless memorable. At 63 years of age, I’m surely far too old to get butterflies in the abdomen region – or so I thought. Mrs P […]

Concocting the first MFW preview of yet another [ha!] season in the Premier League for Norwich City has fallen to me and I must admit that the prospect of our facing the mighty Liverpool at Carrow Road on Saturday would normally fill me with awe, dread and no small portion of trepidation. But for all of us, […]

Us wordsmiths have favourite words or phrases that we like to occasionally incorporate into our articles, whether on MFW or elsewhere. Mine have included *Bruce was incandescent with rage*, *Leitner adopted a masterly policy of inactivity* and *Colin wasn’t a happy bunny* – the latter of which won’t be required this season unless we meet […]

Two weeks until kick-off folks so for the final time during the close season the posse have been summoned for their thoughts on the ins and outs at Carrow Road and what might happen to HMS Canary** as it prepares to negotiate some strange tides and choppy waters aka VAR, Match of the Day and […]

On a Saturday I would normally rebut any suggestion from Mrs P that she’s going shopping in the City and wants me to go with her. Something along the lines of one of the dogs isn’t well and I need to stay with him/her or I need to watch the underwater hang gliding live on Channel […]

As we wake up this morning to *Freedom Day* as it’s dubbed by certain sections of the media, I bet many of our thoughts turn to getting back to the Carra and seeing how the Premier League, NCFC and the 19 other clubs are planning for August 14. Or indeed how the endlessly changing, sometimes […]

I read MFW’s Mick Dennis’ brace of They’ll Never Stop Us Dreaming articles earlier this week and thoroughly enjoyed them as quite a few of us did too judging by the comments. It took a while but eventually my memory jogged into gear and reminded me I’d met three England managers myself, although before any of them […]

‘Ultimately, I’m a City fan first and foremost and that will never change. Nothing England do will ever compare with the sheer visceral excitement of watching my team score, or see out a landmark win, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens on Sunday, just that whatever the result, the effects will be less dramatic!‘ Thus wrote […]

That was the week that was for Norwich City in terms of them there comings and goings, wasn’t it? Gibbo and Dimi confirmed as permanent additions to the squad was no big surprise to anybody and their comments on NCFC official afterwards were very pleasing on the ear. And it also looks like this will […]

It’s time for us to remember the words to the Angus Gunn songs [yes there are two] and welcome Kosovan international Milot Rashica from the green-and-whites of Werder Bremen, who is likely to become our record signing at a rumoured £9.4 million before add-ons.  Then there’s 18-year-old Flynn Clarke from Peterborough, who has frightening potential […]

With City’s Chief Scout Chris Jones having recently departed to Crystal Palace and current media rumours that Head of Recruitment Kieran Scott is about to leave us for Middlesbrough to become their Sporting Director rather than wait a year to inherit the crown so admirably worn by Stuart Webber over the past few years, I […]

It might be stretching a point to reference Christmas during what has so far been a flaming June in Norfolk, but the night before our fixtures were released used to be like Christmas Eve to me as in sheer anticipation of what might follow on *Christmas Day* when the announcements were made. Would it be […]

My relationship with the Euros has always been pretty much an open one, as in I can’t get too carried away with England and if I choose to pass on Austria v North Macedonia and a few similar matches, that’s because dogs need walking, cars need washing and gardens need watering. I was reminded the […]

My Saturday morning of June 5 started as such mornings often do, with a quick walk to the local shop to buy a newspaper and have a chat about football with David behind the counter, a lifelong Arsenal fan and a very knowledgeable guy who has helped MFW with a match preview or two in […]

Boredom is the beginning of all destruction and everything that is negative** Well, last week I had my fill of boredom, rumour, speculation and what might [and, more importantly, might not] happen during the current but yet to open transfer window. Every fansite, from Arsenal’s Daily Cannon to 100% Villa aka Vital Villa, were banging on about Emi […]

As the *silly season* gets fully underway with anybody from Arsenal, Leeds, Villa and even Slagheap Rovers apparently after our Emi Buendia, I thought I’d cast a brief personal eye over our *ghost season* – you know, the one where we weren’t individually or collectively allowed into Carrow Road, let alone the stadia of other […]

My secondary school made us do orienteering, which involved being sent out in pairs with one map, one compass and a mission to find about a dozen *targets* as quickly as possible in a strange land known as Epping Forest. But if I thought orienteering was mind-boggling [I did, I was pretty poor at it] […]

Now the three-times-a-party scenario is over, we have to dig into *what are we going to do next season* territory. In the first of a three-part series I have enlisted the help of my regular posse to garner their thoughts on what we can hope for before the transfer window has opened, and there’s a […]

*Now the party’s over… I’m so tired*. Good old Bryan Ferry [Avalon in this case] for referencing our magnificent EFL Championship winning squad over 30 years ago. Mystic, seer or sage? No, but it’s quite appropriate really as we saw the celebrations at Oakwell on Saturday, and thanks again to iFollow for extending the coverage […]