I had started penning this article a week ago, with the title – a gentle escapism from the harsh reality of life… Events in the Denmark game have swiftly rendered that title meaningless. Permit me to express my thoughts prior to the Denmark game. There was a lad I used to teach back in 2007, when […]
Martin MacBlain
What if… Big Bad Bob had done things just a little bit differently
“And the Freedom of the City, is awarded to Mr Robert Chase.” Humour me. Inspired by the wonderfully evocative (provocative?), Mr Sadler’s article on Robert Chase, I felt driven to write an ‘alternate view’ on what might just have happened, had the purse strings been loosened in those balmy days of January 1994. As historians, […]
“Where were you, where were you, where were you when we were great…?”
I’m actually asking this as a genuine question rather than attempting to ignite our readers into a chanting frenzy. The Second Coming by Kevin Baldwin. If you haven’t read it, do so. A fantastic read, well written, and a lovely match-by-match insight into the return of Mike Walker. I’m on my second reading but it’s […]
As the saying goes… ‘Time for some new heroes’
‘Sorry, but I must have missed your tenure as England manager.’ Indubitably, the Rodent’s most infamous quote. Yet it was a rather different quote of his that struck me. It’s relevance still resonates today. ‘The only difference is that it won’t be in a Norwich shirt, but I’ve had a couple of targets in mind […]
So, we’ve already had a few ins, but who’s on their way out of Carrow Road?
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein. Well that quote now feels rather apt. I’ve kept my powder deliberately dry over the re-start, but having watched the same smorgasbord being served up game after game I decided on the theme for this article: When it feels […]
Tempus Fugit – But there are worse things than sharing a birthday with Norwich City
As I sit and pen this on the eve of my 40th birthday, a multitude of emotions are swirling around my inner conscience. Do I feel that old? Am I now in mid-life? Is the inevitable getting closer. It really is a whirlwind. The reality, if you remove numbers, is that I’ll be no different […]
Thatcher and our Delia may be poles apart politically, but they’ll agree on one thing…
The lady’s not for turning Readers of a certain vintage will absorb that phrase and either shudder or raise a wistful smile. It depends on your politics. For those unaware of the phrase, it relates to Thatcher’s refusal in 1980 to make a u-turn on her economic policy, despite rising unemployment and the economic recession. […]
Not the greatest, not even the best, but let’s be having your ‘favourite’ Norwich City XI
They locked us down. A scenario I never thought I’d see, certainly in my lifetime. As I sit and pen this article I find myself gazing out over the Severn Estuary and count myself very fortunate to live where I do. We live in Portishead and have a 180-degree panoramic view of the river Severn, […]
Who remembers their very first game? The buzz of the crowd & ‘the thrill of the grass’
‘The thrill of the grass’. Now if anyone can guess the literary reference; book and author – sans google – I’ll be mightily impressed. In these dystopian days of social distancing and self-isolation, terms I had never heard until a few weeks ago, I’ve been trying to think of a few articles to pen that could help […]
What’s in a season? And what was your favourite ever Norwich City campaign?
Do you remember that scene in the Matrix, where Neo becomes ‘self-aware’…? For my football awakening, that was the summer of 1993. Sure, I liked football, used to have a kick around, emulated Gazza, Platt and Lineker during Italia ‘90, but I didn’t have a team. So my Norwich FC journey began in that summer […]
Heard the one about Pickles, the Jules Rimet & one of the few Englishman to lift it?
Banks, Stiles, Charlton, Hurst and of course, Peters. Names that roll off the tongue as effortlessly as if they were still playing today. And it’s easy to see why. Because they are amongst a select group of Englishmen to have ever lifted the World Cup. But it’s a lesser-known Englishman with the same claim, that […]
Gemutlichkeit, zeitgeist or simply a case of schadenfreude? Which #NCFC fan are you?
Having been in receipt of a German A level for 20 years (and sadly hardly ever using it) you come to realise that the Germans have a word for almost anything and some of these words have started to find their way into our vocabulary. Particularly if your beloved football team are now lovers of […]
Sporting Directors? We’ve seen it all before. The curious season of Rioch and Hamilton
In these halcyon days of directors of football, sporting directors, business managers and tiered levels of management, it’s easy to forget this is a path previously trodden by Norwich City FC. The summer of 1998 and the sight of two men, hands clasped in unison heralding in a new era at NR1 was one that […]