Here's the cover of my new novel, Memorabilia

I finished writing my new novel earlier this month and this week I've got to see the front cover for the first time.

The yellow and green is of course a reference to Norwich City as they figure throughout the book. I'm sure any man aged between 30 and 60 will love it as will anyone who has ever had the desire to collect anything.

More news on the novel when it's out in springtime.

Panini Championship stickers are cool and collectable

Great news for fans of Championship clubs – the new Panini sticker collection, Championship 2011 is now on sale.
I suppose we should be really grateful that Panini, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year bothers to take an annual look at life in the second tier and I for one am thrilled.
It’s only the last couple of years that we’ve had Panini sticker collections for the Championship – so what’s this year’s like?
Well all 24 clubs are featured, they get a page each in the album which each follows the same pattern. There’s the shiny club badge, the home and away kit and a team sticker, plus the team captain which is consists of two parts (I got Paul McKenna’s legs in my first packet!). There are stickers for two star players and 16 featured players from each team, which are split in two like the old Scottish stickers in the Panini albums of the mid-1980s.
That’s the only real shame – that each sticker doesn’t contain one player, but with 386 in total that may be a good thing as full size stickers would mean they’d need to be nearer 600 to feature all the players contained in this collection.
The stickers are 50p a packet which seems a lot these days, but that’s about a sixth the price of a programme and 25 years ago that was still the same ratio when stickers were around 10p a packet.
As well as the 24 clubs, there are stickers for the league trophy, a special Panini anniversary sticker and 24 international stars (one for each club), which gets a little tenuous at times – Owen Garvan is Ipswich’s (0 caps), David Somma is Leeds’ (0 caps) and Watford’s is Scott Loach (0 caps).
Still, it’s a cracking collection and one that any fan of a Championship club will no doubt treasure.

How appropriate that outstanding Martin had the final word

Four points against the top two sides in two home games in two weeks and that must make any Norwich fan happier.
And the source of those four points, the man who scored in both games to defeat QPR and take a nice couple of points away from Cardiff was super Russell Martin.
Is there a more improved player in the City side this season? Martin is certainly one of the best right backs in the division, possibly the best. He’s come up with some vital goals this season and I am proud that I have the shirt he wore against Reading when he scored that fabulous goal in November hanging in my wardrobe.
Perhaps I’m a little biased as Martin spends half his Saturday afternoon’s at Carrow Road running up and down the flank right in front of me. When he comes out he claps towards me and when he goes off he claps towards me. Between that, like today, he is often immense.
Today was no exception. The big story today was the return of Craig Bellamy for his first competitive game back at Carrow Road since deciding he wanted Coventry to pay his wages over a decade ago.
To say Martin had Bellamy in his pocket is an understatement. He nullified, stifled and frustrated Cardiff’s number 39. And that was just the first half.
Bellamy had some good touches early on but midway through the first half came the first big test. A ball was flicked down the left and we got the first chance to see that jet-heeled Bellamy pace for the first time.
As Bellamy went through the gears, Martin turned on the afterburners too. Not only outpacing the Welshman, but nicking the ball off him and stopping another Bluebirds’ attack.
Martin had tonnes of space in the first half and was the source of most of Norwich’s good moments. It was so lopsided that we had three at the back for a lot of the half and Martin pushed right up on the right hand side. Bellamy did nothing in the first half and even less in the second apart from picking up a silly booking and nearly getting sent off.
Apart from Martin’s late equaliser, how was the game?
Well Cardiff started well with Jon Parkin up against Leon Barnett. A great matchup and Barnett did pretty well, apart from when Parkin put Cardiff into an early lead with a great finish. Michael Chopra and Parkin were pretty quiet as were Chris Martin and Grant Holt. All four front men on each side failed to shine, I thought Holt in particular had a real stinker today.
City were their usual pretty self in the first half, knocking the ball around in midfield. Andrew Crofts and Henri Lansbury were solid, but I thought David Fox had a great first 45.
City knocked on the door for most of the opening period but Cardiff went in level at half time. In the second half it was City doing most of the pressing. I though the introductions of Aaron Wilbraham and Simon Lappin were key.
I haven’t been that impressed by Wilbraham so far but thought he made a real difference today and the same for Lappin. A great crosser and I’m pleased he’s sticking around for a few more years, considering how he was treated by Glenn Roeder.
Cardiff had five at the back for much of the last quarter, Chris Burke looked a good player when he came on but without Chopra, Bellamy and to some extent Parkin firing on all cylinders I thought a draw was a fair result.
Parkin is, literally, a beast of a man. I’d love to see him in the Premier League taking on the likes of Nemanja Vidic and John Terry.
But the last word on Russell Martin. What a great signing he’s turned out to be. Great going forward (just think about Jon Otsemobor for a minute and what a nightmare he was), an eye for goal and he seems like a genuinely nice bloke with a really humble demeanour.
Well done Russell. Ok so the man of the match lazily went to Wes Hoolahan, but us who sit in the Jarrold Stand know a good player when we see one and you are it.

City ready to welcome back Bellamy for the first time in over ten years

Craig Bellamy took part in five league campaigns for Norwich in which they never finished higher than ninth place. The season after he left The Canaries made the play-off final.
The impression that gives is that City were better off without Bellamy, but tell that to any fan at Carrow Road this Saturday and I doubt they’ll be many who agree.
Norwich fans saw the best of the raw talent Bellamy still possesses as the century drew to a close. His sale, which took place just a couple of months before Nigel Worthington took City by the scruff of the neck and eventually in to the top flight, was a crushing blow to a team that had been reliant on it’s hot young Welsh talent.
Bellamy, for me, heads a list that includes the likes of Chris Sutton and Darren Eadie as players who I always wanted to see come back and finish their careers at Carrow Road. The latter two didn’t do it, and now that Craig has pitched up at his first love, I doubt he will play for City again.
But I can guarantee that his arrival back in Norfolk on Saturday won’t go unnoticed. I am convinced he’ll either get booked, get sent off or score for Cardiff on Saturday. Let’s hope he gets a great welcome – though looks slightly more disgruntled when Norwich have taken the points from Cardiff.
Bellamy made his debut in March 1997 in a 2-0 loss at Crystal Palace at the age of 19, he started his first City game at Maine Road against Manchester City in September the same year and scored his first goal against Bury at Carrow Road in November that year.
I was in my last year at university as Bellamy ended that season as top scorer with 13 goals so don’t recall much about that big 1997/98 season when Bellamy emerged as a new City star.
I remember most the start to the following season, specifically on August 22 1998 and that fantastic match against QPR.
A crazy game that saw Craig open the scoring in the second minute, QPR equalised in the fourth minute with a Gavin Peacock penalty, Bellamy scored a sixth minute penalty and Matt Jackson made it 3-1 in the eighth minute. That night’s Pink Un had the headline ‘2,4,6,8 motorway’ or something like that referring to the times of the first four goals. Mike Sheron made it 3-2 before half-time before Bellamy scored again from the spot before the hour to complete his hat-trick.
The next home game was bizarrely a televised home match against Bury. City drew 0-0 and Bellamy had a last minute penalty saved by Dean Keily.
If September was a duff month for Bellamy made a real impact in October 1998 with the only goal of the East Anglian derby. He whipped his shirt off to reveal an flattering baggy white vest under his City shirt. Within days the club shop was stocking similar items branded ‘Simply The Vest’.
Bellamy missed much of the following season with injury, returning to the City side in April 2000. One game into the following season, he was sold to Coventry for £6million.
From Coventry he moved to Newcastle and on to Blackburn, Liverpool, West Ham, Manchester City, Celtic and then to Cardiff.
In the ten and a bit years since he left Carrow Road, he hasn’t been back to play a game. This should change on Saturday when Norwich welcomes back one of their favourite sons.

FA Cup has no appeal to new generation of City fans

Well the research proved I was right - it would have been an upset for Norwich to beat Leyton Orient in the FA Cup yesterday. And that's just how it went.
On Friday I wrote that Norwich have only made it passed the third round three times in 15 years. Make that 16 years now after a poor home loss to Leyton Orient.
I felt sorry for myself, as year in year out I always fall victim to the romance of the FA Cup. I always love the second round for the simple fact that it ends with the third round draw and back in November after we'd tonked Ipswich 4-1 I went home and was thrilled to get a home draw with either Leyton Orient or Droylsden.
Fate dictated it would be League One Orient at Carrow Road and fate dictated they would be the latest list on a shameful rolecall of teams such as Bury, Brentford, Charlton and Grimsby who have ended a Norwich FA Cup run before the Christmas sales are over.
What is particularly galling is that a new generation of City fans think the FA Cup is just a trivial competition that we never do well in. The fact that we did used to be known as a great cup team is starting to be just something filed away in the memories of supporters who may have witnessed the events of 1959, who were at Old Trafford in 1967 or at the semi-finals in 1989 and 1992.
Where I sit in the Jarrold Stand there are normally quite a few kids. The chap in front of me, a well dressed man in his 40s, regulalry spends league games sitting next to his teenage son. On Saturday he sat alone, his son obviously had better things to do.
FA Cup dad? No thanks.
It reminded me of when I was his age, at the start of the 1990s. I used to watch Norwich at every chance I could, but occasionally when Norwich played in the ZDS Cup I would have to be persuaded by my mates at school that it was worth bothering with.
So much so that in 1991 when Norwich played QPR in the competition me and my mate decided to go for a laugh and just for fun we went and stood in the away end with no more than two dozen Rangers fans. QPR won 2-1 and we made out that it didn't bother us as we pretended to celebrate with some Loftus Road regulars.
Fast forward a generation and it occurs to me that while Dads still recall the magic of the competition, their sons and daughters couldn't give a stuff about it. For them, the FA Cup is how we used to think of the ZDS Cup.
As for the game, well it was grim. Nothing happened in the first half apart from former City loan man Jimmy Smith hitting the eventual winner with an early header.
City, with Aaron Wilbraham and Chris Martin up front and Declan Rudd in goal just didn't get the rub of the green.
In the second half, Paul Lambert, who'd been fending off approaches from Burnley all week, changed it round a bit with Grant Holt on for Wilbraham and Simon Lappin and, later, Simeon Jackson also thrown on to try and earn a replay at least.
City didn't find that goal. Did we actually want to go to Orient in ten days for a replay? Lambert probably didn't, but it would have been nice to get into the fourth round draw at least and dare to dream.
Beat Cardiff next Saturday in a much more meaningful game and I'll be happy again. That and the hope Orient don't pick out a decent tie in the next round.

Norwich's dismal recent FA Cup record: Yes it really is that bad!

Norwich City fans stand divided over whether we want a good run in the FA Cup this season – fearing it may detract from the excellent league season.
Older fans who recall the glory of the 1959 cup run are probably dismayed that the team don’t seem to take the competition seriously anymore, but such is Norwich’s dismal recent FA Cup record that even victory over League One Leyton Orient tomorrow would be a surprise.
That’s because Norwich have one of the worst records in the competition for a team that has reached the semi-final three times.
I’m a massive FA Cup fan but looking at our recent performances in the competition fills me with memories of duff exits and miserable winter days. I've always fallen for the romance of the cup and make it a priotity to attend the games without question.
But I've seen precious few great FA Cup moments in the last decade and a half. And I’m not alone. If you sit near a City fan under 25 at Carrow Road, they probably won’t actually remember Norwich getting past the fifth round of the FA Cup. That’s how bad it is.
After losing out to Sunderland in the 1992 semi-final, Norwich lost at home in the fourth round in 1993 and 1994 at Carrow Road to Tottenham and Manchester United, both 2-0, both televised games. The following year, when City would end the season relegated, they where whipped 5-0 at Everton.
No real shame in those performances, but 15 years ago, with Norwich playing in the Endsleigh Division One, the dismal cup run started.
Since a 2-1 defeat at home to Brentford in January 1996, Norwich have gone out of the competition at the third round stage an amazing 11 times.
So in 15 years, Norwich have only got past the third round on three occasions (the other occasion was last season when Norwich went out in round two.)
Eight of these third round defeats have come away from Carrow Road which sums up just what poor draws Norwich have received – the two occasions Norwich have lost at home in the third round since that Brentford game are in January 2006 at home to West Ham and in 2009 at home to Charlton after a 1-1 draw at The Valley.
Of those three FA Cup ‘runs’ since 1996, Norwich have gone out in the fourth round once (in 1997 they lost 2-1 at Leicester after a 1-0 win at home to Sheffield United) and twice in 15 years we’ve made it to the fifth round.
In 2003, Norwich defeated Brighton 3-1 at home and then beat non-league Dagenham and Redbridge 1-0 before losing 2-0 at Southampton.
In 2007, Norwich won 4-1 at Tamworth, beat Blackpool 3-2 at Carrow Road after a 1-1 draw at Bloomfield Road and then lost 4-0 at Chelsea. That win at home to Blackpool on February 13, 2007 which featured two goals from Darren Huckerby and a great extra-time winner from 18-year old Chris Marin is arguably Norwich’s greatest FA Cup moment since beating Southampton in the sixth round in March 1992.
So looking back, Norwich fans have had little recent experience of watching The Canaries do anything in the FA Cup. Norwich are usually out by January and perhaps our poor FA Cup history is emphasised by the fact that Norwich didn’t even play a game in the competition in 2000 or 2010 (we lost at home to Coventry in December 1999 when the third round was moved to accommodate Manchester United’s involvement in the FIFA World Club championships and in 2009 we lost 2-1 at Carlisle in the second round in December).
In the last 15 years, going back to the defeat to Brentford, Norwich have played just six FA Cup games at Carrow Road, so tomorrow’s game is something of a rarity – and a win, even if it achieved with a relatively second-string team against Orient, would be something of a collector’s item.

Russell Martin - Norwich's secret weapon!

You’ve got to feel sorry for Russell Martin – no I’m not talking about the own goal he was credited with yesterday in Norwich’s 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough.
My favourite current City player has had a strange few weeks – rumours of a move to Blackburn, a great goal at home to QPR...but he still appears to be a bit of an enigma for the national press.
Poor Russell was named 'Richard Martin' in Sunday’s Observer, wrongly pictured as Aaron Wilbraham in The Sun and then when he made it into the same paper’s team of the week, he was positioned at centre half!
Don’t worry Russell, us City fans know who you are and, fingers crossed, you’ll be on Match Of The Day every week from August in a City shirt.

Remembering Coen Moulijn

Dutch football great Coen Moulijn passed away last night – but it’s a name few people in this country know which is a real shame.
Anyone who has been to Feyenoord’s fantastic De Kuip stadium will have seen the statue outside the ground of the legendry left winger who is often considered to be the Dutch equivalent of Stanley Matthews.
I was there in March and snapped a couple of pictures of the statue and later on that trip I took a look around the great Feyenoord Museum where you simply can’t miss Coen.
Moulijn played for Feyenoord for an astonishing 17 seasons, joining at 18 and playing his last game for the club in 1972, just as Dutch football and the great Ajax side were at their pomp.

Unsurpringly he is known in Rotterdam as 'Mister Feyenoord'.
Moulijn scored four times in 38 games for the Dutch national side, but his last game was in 1969 and sadly for him, he was just ahead of his time in terms of obtaining the same sort of status that would fall on the shoulders of Johan Cruyff a decade later.
Moulijn died of a brain haemorrhage and his passing is massive news in Holland.
If you don’t know him, check out this footage - he’s number11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q85dasl_4cA&feature=related

Altogether now:
Coentje! Coentje! Coentje!

Perfect start to the new year with win over QPR

I took a fair amount of stick on Twitter for suggesting Wes Hoolahan shouldn't have been given the man of the match against Sheffield United. Today against QPR he more than deserved it.
Hoolahan was everywhere and top of the league Rangers just didn't know how to handle him.
I'd go as far as to say that without him pulling the strings in midfield, three points wouldn't have been taken.
Games at Carrow Road this season when Norwich take the lead are strange - it doesn't happen that often and Russel Martin's ninth minute goal changed what could have been a very open game into a tough midfield battle in which Andrew Crofts and Wes got the better of the Rangers boys.
This game reminded me of our clash with Middlesbrough in October when one goal was enough against a team who never really looked like scoring. Credit then to Michael Nelson again (who also made a couple of contributions to the attack) and to Zak Whitbread who slipped into the heart of defence without a whimper. Just like the ballboys at Wimbledon - when you don't notice them, you know they've done a good job.
Rangers rarely threatened and when they went down to ten men early in the second half (the fourth red card in four games at Carrow Road!!) three points looked to be ours. Crucially, Neil Warnock had already replaced Hieder Helguson with Patrick Agyemang and used another sub at the interval too so this worked in our favour. Warnock's last throw of the dice was to haul of much vaunted Adel Taarabt after an hour - oh how City knew this was going to be their day.
Rangers rarely threatened and City should really have wrapped up the win earlier. Paddy Kenny made a great save from Chris Martin and there were a couple of chances near the end when City made their man extra advantage really show.
For QPR, their best chance looked to have come when Patrick Agyemang went down (nside the box from where I was sitting) but the referee gave a free-kick in a really bad position.
Results elsewhere pretty much went our way and with off-form Cardiff coming to Carrow Road in a fortnight we could soon be saying we've taken ten points in two months from home games against Leeds, Ipswich, QPR and Cardiff.
I bet any City fan would have taken that!