Martin Penney

I’ve sometimes felt that I don’t belong. Not in a self-deprecating sense, but I’ve been through that situation a few times in my life. From being a scholarship kid at a public school through being coerced into meeting an early girlfriend’s Tory councillor parents when I was a rebellious youngster to having to attend a […]

Over the last few years, Norwich City FC have proudly, if quietly, waved the banner of self-financing. All the noise has come from critics, many from within of course. I’m not a fan of the concept myself, but I obviously know that some of you lovely MFW folks and others elsewhere are quite happy with […]

A few years after I was born in late 1957, there were two well-known USA sitcoms shown on black and white TV in the UK that were beloved of ex-servicemen everywhere. The first was Sgt Bilko, aka You’ll Never Get Rich or simply the Phil Silvers Show. As a kid growing up I loved it in all of […]

The one positive I get from international breaks is that it gives the Canary Nation time to relax, consider, look to the future and also take a bit of a glance over the shoulder at what has gone on during, in this case, the first 20 per cent of the season. With the latter in […]

When it comes to famous writers, many are entombed within the confines of Poets Corner Westminster Abbey, as in Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Byron and Philip Larkin amongst shedloads of others. These writers generally got their inspiration from sitting down at places like Tintern Abbey, skulking with understandable fear and dread in the horrific trenches of […]

From little acorns mighty oaks do grow, proclaims a proverb that originated in England during the 14th century**. If they fall far enough away from the tree not to be suffocated by the arboreal donor, passing squirrels do not hoard them over the winter so that they shrivel and die and the weather remains generous […]

A while ago now I was speaking with MFW regular Alex Bain and somewhere in the conversation there emerged the concept that when it comes to buying low and selling high, it doesn’t always work out that way. And nor does it for many home-grown Academy lads either. For every Emi there’s an Aidan Fitzpatrick, […]

Almost to this very day two years ago I had to go to the NNUH for a full dental extraction. The guy in the next bed to me was a Polish fella called Marek who was in for some kind of preventative DVT operation. Neither of us could stand the noise from the other patients […]

How often have us Norwich City types come across the phrase *Boys against Men*? Quite a lot if you’ve seen its use as many times as I have recently – I’ve lost count in all honesty. But on Tuesday night against Liverpool at Carrow Road there was a novel twist on the oft-used cliché. The […]

I was scheduled to pass my season ticket to a mate on Saturday. It had been an agreement for over a month as he lives in the West Midlands and rarely gets to Carrow Road at the moment. You don’t renege on a deal like that. But on Friday dinner time I was feeling the […]

Urban myths. You know, stories that filter down to you second and third hand that you’d really like to believe in and happily share with your friends but with a sensible head on you’re not sure if you can believe they are true. Two of my three favourite examples concern the rock music industry of […]

I was rooting through the oubliette of my desk draws [the bottom one with heavy stuff like property deeds and old coins in it] the other day and discovered something I thought I had disposed of ages ago when I eBayed all my old programmes and sold them to a newsagent in Costessey, together with the egg […]

So that transfer window has finally closed and I think we must surely agree that it has been the finest one in terms of achievement by Norwich City yet. I reckon it is and the best of fair play to Stuart Webber and the recruitment team. But do the posse agree? The only way to […]

Who’d have thought it? As we go into the international break we are above Arsenal in the Premier League table. Oh joy, you might think, until you actually take a quick shufti at said, sad table. And who do we face after the break? Arsenal at the Emirates of course. But with all thoughts of […]

That display on Tuesday against Bournemouth was as far from a Greek tragedy as it is possible to get and much more a case of Greek Fire** courtesy of a young man we’ll be seeing a lot more of – Christos Tzolis. Let’s be honest Scott Parker opened his book of excuses early doors by […]

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 […]