Martin Penney

Some very good movies have come along over the years with the word “Bad” featuring loudly and proudly in the title, such as “Bad Day at Black Rock in 1950, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1967, and, crossing the theoretical millennium bridge, The Bad News Bears in 2005. And yesterday MFW Editor Gary decided to perpetuate the legendary line with […]

For me, Chris Sutton is one of those so-called pundits who you have to be wary of. Very wary in fact. Many times over the years our Chris has fallen foul of authority in its various forms with his in-yer-face, no-nonsense, tell-it-as-he-sees-it comments and he continues to divide public opinion to this day. This feeling […]

What with everything that has been going on behind the scenes at Carrow Road in the last seven days dear readers, you would be forgiven for thinking that these here UEFA European 23-24 Championships qualifying rounds are not being played this week and next for all the attention that MFW has afforded them.  A quick […]

Norwich City have long claimed not to like doing deals late in any given transfer window, and we’ve consistently heard this mantra from Paul Lambert to David Wagner, with both Alex Neil and Daniel Farke pretty much riding the same train too. Dean Smith had a couple of windows too, but these I seem to […]

The recent ankle injury suffered by Josh Sargent, which will see him sidelined until the New Year, hasn’t exactly helped City’s situation, but the fact that we have moved on from being ultra reliant on one man [Teemu Pukki, of course] to produce goals is a significant mitigating factor. “It is, however, an unpleasant reminder of […]

When I saw the teamsheet for Ashton Gate I must admit to feeling a modicum of excitement as, at last, some issues were made abundantly clear as head coach David Wagner made his selection. The goalkeeping pecking order is now firmly established and to my surprise the one left out in the cold is American-Chilean youngster Vicente Reyes, […]

There is something extremely pleasing about winning 4-0 away from home, especially when Saturday’s defeat of Huddersfield Town saw us hit second spot in the formative EFL Championship table, thus lifting us one point and four places above the Binmen to put them back in their box – for now at least. Equally pleasing were […]

I can’t help but find a common theme between City head coach David Wagner and the breath of fresh air that has been free transfer signing Ashley Barnes as they expressed their views after the 3-1 mauling*** of the Lions of Millwall at Carrow Road on Sunday. Their attitude, which I’m pretty darn sure wasn’t choreographed, can be boiled […]

“I think there’s still a few people feeling what went on last season, so there was a bit of nerves there, but they [the players] came through that brilliantly, and showed big courage in the way we want to play. “I’m really pleased that we got the point. We’re two games in, we’ve got four […]

Phrases such as ceasefire, cessation of hostilities, or even invitations to smoke the pipe of peace have been much valued across the timeline of history, from the day Ug promised Stig he wouldn’t rob his cattle if he stopped trying it on with his life partner whenever they were alone together in the Big Cave. […]

As I mentioned more than once at the MFW weekend, the phony war begins at 1500 hours CRT precisely on Saturday, August 5, with CRT in this case obviously standing for Carrow Road Time, where the first shots of 2023-24 will be exchanged between ourselves and the Tigers of Hull City. The summer has been nothing without […]

There’s nothing quite like it as all the stars begin to align when we are just one calendar week away from the start of that most vital thing in our lives – the beginning of the new football season. Season tickets, memberships, and arrangements for a match-day lift schedule with your mates all nicely completed, […]

The seemingly ever-popular world of antiques and auctions is one I have dipped in and out of over the years, both in terms of buying or selling items of little financial value it must be said. One of my favourite TV programmes back in the day was unashamedly Lovejoy. For MFW readers who passed it by […]

Gary said yesterday that he is not feeling quite so aggrieved at the departure of Bali Mumba to Plymouth Argyle as other City supporters might well be so, here’s how I feel guv’nor, and there’s only one word for it: gutted. That article attracted a large amount of comments and it is a testimony to us MFW […]

I too “woke up yesterday morning with the intention of writing a piece in response to Delia’s interview in the Financial Times but, on reflection, thought better of it”, just as MFW editor Gary G did. Last week we featured an excellent article from Trev, who exhorted MFW readers and writers to put any off-field differences behind […]

There’s well under a month to go now before the curtain is raised on the EFL Championship season of 2023-24, surely one where the huge number of Norwich City supporters that consider themselves to occupy the middle ground of expectation probably aren’t anticipating the current squad to pull up too many trees. Not for the […]

It’s part of local folklore that back in the day Norwich had something which few other cities possessed, and that was that the City Walls contained within their geography a church for every week of the year and, possibly better still, a pub for every single day of the year. This of course would have […]

To give credit where it is well and truly due, Norwich City have certainly played their part in the lives of the gossip-mongers over the last seven days and that is for sure. Gary dealt with the only concrete issue yesterday, the arrival of 22-year-old Spanish prospect Borja Sainz from Turkey’s Giresunspor, the latest in a line […]

When writing about the non-event that was the release of the EFL Championship fixtures for 2023-24, Gary remarked that there were only 44 days to go until what we normally refer to as The Big Kick-Off gets underway on Saturday, August 5. Well, technically there were 43 days if you count the fact that television […]