Watching Barcelona beat Manchester United in Wembley Champions League final is top entry on my football CV

Brilliant Barcelona put in an awesome performance at Wembley last night to beat Manchester United 3-1 and for me it was the best night of my football-watching CV.
Twenty years ago this month I was 16, doing my GCSEs and trying to skip school to watch Manchester United.
Two decades later I found myself in the company of 87,000 other football fans at Saturday’s Champions League final.
I’m not a United fan but, back in May 1991 and through a friend, I had a ticket to watch Manchester United face Tottenham in what turned out to be the final game of the Division One season.
Both sides had taken part in big cup finals in the previous five days – Spurs had beaten Nottingham Forest in the ‘Gazza Final’ while United had beaten Barcelona in the European Cup Winners Cup in Rotterdam.
With a lift to and from Old Trafford sorted the only red tape I had to cross was the fact I had a French Oral exam at 9am on the Tuesday morning.
I got my mum to write a letter to the headmaster of my school appealing for the exam to be moved so I could watch the United game at Old Trafford. The reply was shorter than Wayne Rooney’s temper.
I was told that focussing on football as such a crucial time in my education was wrong and I was advised to re-evaluate my priorities with immediate effect.
You can guess the rest – I yawned and struggled through the French exam just hours after returning from Old Trafford.
Twenty years on I somehow found myself at Saturday’s massive Euro finale and I must admit to some guilt and surprise that I actually was able to go.
I stumbled across a ticket almost by accident. I’ve always loved watching football on the continent and in the last decade have been to more than 40 games. I was actually looking into getting tickets for a Europa League quarter-final earlier this year when I saw a link on the UEFA website for Champions League final tickets.
Of course nobody knew the finalists then, but because it was at Wembley, UEFA made 11,000 tickets available in a ballot for British-based fans.
I applied, ticked the box for a £225 second tier ticket with a staggering £26 booking fee and six weeks later was told I had one.
By that stage it was clear the United/Barcelona final was on the cards and while fans of those two clubs scoured the online planet for tickets, I sat back as a fan of neither club with one in the bag.
UEFA president Michel Platini has since said the process was wrong on two fronts – wrong to charge so much for tickets and wrong to have so many for neutral fans. I totally agree – I shouldn’t really have been able to get a ticket, but hey, it’s a guilt I can live with.
And so to the game.
The atmosphere smacks you in the face as soon as you arrive at Wembley Park tube station; chaos and lots of pushing, loads of Manchester and Spanish accents, everyone drinking cans of beer, a pungent waft of dope in the air, warnings everywhere not to buy and sell tickets from touts, lots of people buying and selling tickets from touts.
With my £225 ticket reportedly worth £8,000 of course I was tempted to sell it, but Wembley cranked up the fear factor ahead of the game with talk of criminal procedures taking place for anyone selling and threats of ID checks on the turnstiles.
As it turned out there were no checks and loads of tickets changing hands for big bundles of euros – I don’t think they were going for anything more than £500 outside the stadium though.
Inside Wembley the atmosphere was already building as I took my seat behind the goal with an hour to kick off. I sat in the United end but while their fans filled the lower and top tiers, the middle tier in front of the large TV screen was a hotchpotch of neutrals and most seemed to be supporting Barcelona.
I got talking to a Chinese fan near me with a United cap on and a Barcelona shirt on. I asked who he supported and the answer was not that surprising given his dress sense – he was an Arsenal fan.
The chap next to me was a Barca nut who sat draped in a Catalan flag and throughout the whole game provided a running commentary. Sometimes if actually felt like I was in Spain, not Middlesex.
Everyone knows the details of the game so I won’t go into those, save to say that the atmosphere among the fans I sat with was great – I must have taken a dozen photos of people with their cameras, I talked to loads of people I wouldn’t normally have talked to and I think we all collectively felt that we were genuinely lucky to have got these tickets.
I was well aware that the action unfolding in front of me was being watched by more than 300 million people around the world and that’s the one thing I will savour.
Barcelona and of course Lionel Messi were superb and I felt sorry for United – as talented as Sir Alex Ferguson’s men are it’s a bit like being Jimmy White in the 1980s when there’s an all-conquering Steve Davis around.
Most United fans walking down Wembley Way after the game agreed that they’d simply been beaten by a better side.
And then, to almost complete the irony of me getting a match ticket, I was asked by a ‘collector’ if he could have my match ticket as a ‘souvenir’.
No thanks mate, just as before the game, I want it as a treasured memory of a huge addition to my football watching CV.

Lambert's City XI have come so far since day of 7-1 loss

Fifteen days since Norwich City secured a remarkable promotion to the Premier League and I’m still trying to contemplate just what an amazing achievement Paul Lambert’s men have produced.
I’ve thought long and hard about how to quantify just what he’s achieved in the 19 months since he succeeded Bryan Gunn as Norwich manager and I think this is the best way to illustrate just what he’s done with the players he’s done it with.
The yardstick I think it’s best to measure the Norwich City XI who became Lambert’s first choice team towards the end of the season by is to cast our minds back to August 8, 2009.
That of course was the day Lambert’s Colchester produced that amazing 7-1 win at Norwich and while most City fans remember the likes of Michael Theoklitos, Simon Whaley and Owain Tudor Jones in the starting line up that day, it’s worth taking a look at just where Norwich’s current starting XI spent that afternoon.
Seven of Lambert’s best eleven were in League One on that day, two were in the Championship, one was in the Premier League and one was in the Scottish Premier League.
Surely this shows how far City have come under Lambert. The side he assembled that took the Championship by storm featured seven players who were playing at a lower level the season before. Next term, they’ll all be in the Premier League.
Here’s where the current City first choice XI were on August 8, 2009 the day of the infamous 7-1 Colchester loss.

John Ruddy (then aged 22, Motherwell)
Was just starting his ninth and final spell on loan from Everton, this time at Scottish Premier League side Motherwell and wasn’t in action on August 8, 2009 although he was playing in the Europa League for Motherwell two days earlier.
New Well boss Jim Gannon (who managed Ruddy at Stockport in two loan spells) was sent to the stands as his side lost 3-1 at home to Steaua Bucherest in the second leg, and lost the tie 6-1 on aggregate.
Motherwell had lead the second leg until Ruddy conceded a penalty in the second half at the tie was effectively over. In the first leg in Romania, the current city keeper had actually saved a spot-kick.

Russell Martin (22, Peterborough)
While Norwich were getting stuffed by Colchester in League One, Posh played their first Championship game of the season at Derby in front of over 33,000 at Pride Park. Russell Martin wasn’t in the Posh starting XI, but started on the bench as Charlie Lee was preferred at right back.
Derby took an early lead in the game and George Boyd equalised with six minutes to go from the penalty spot before Gary Teale hit the winner for the hosts in the 87th minute. Martin made his first appearance of the season the following Tuesday in a 4-0 Carling Cup win at one of his sides Wycombe in which he came on as a sub for Lee after an hour.

Marc Tierney (23, Colchester)
Played the full 90 minutes for Colchester, and picked up a booking , the first of the afternoon, for a 59th minute foul on Wes Hoolahan. Went on to make 44 appearances for Colchester last season.

Zak Whitbread (25, Millwall)
Millwall drew 1-1 at Southampton in the opening game of the League One season but Whitbread wasn’t in action.
The Lions were keen to get rid of Whitbread in August 2009, he had refused to discuss a new deal over the summer and had undergone hip surgery.
Swansea agreed a deal to sign the American during August ’09 but decided to opt out while he recovered.

Elliott Ward (23, Coventry)
Perhaps the one consolation that weekend was the day after the 7-1 loss when Ipswich lost 2-1 at Coventry. Roy Keane had taken charge of the Tractor Boys in April 2009 and much was expected of the Portman Road side, who were expected to make a serious promotion push bankrolled by Marcus Evans’ millions.
All that cash attracted Sky who televised this game which Ward started on the bench. Two goals from Clinton Morrison put the home side 2-0 up at the Ricoh Arena before Jon Walters pulled one back.
Ward came on as a sub eight minutes from time to replace Michael McIndoe.

David Fox (22, Colchester)
Along with Tierney, Fox was the only other Colchester player to be booked that afternoon. Made the score 4-0 with a well-taken free-kick past Michael Theokolitis on 22 minutes from outside the box.

Andrew Crofts (25, Brighton)
Crofts made his Brighton debut on the same day as the 7-1 in a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Walsall in what turned out to be a miserable month for The Seagulls. They failed to win any of their five league games which included a 4-2 loss at home to Stockport and their own 7-1 mauling at Huddersfield ten days after Norwich lost 7-1 to Colchester.

Wes Hoolahan (27, Norwich)
Incredibily Hoolahan was not a regular starter under Bryan Gunn towards the end of the 2008/09 season, but Wes started against Colchester. Opened the scoring against Yeovil in the Carling Cup the following Tuesday from the penalty spot.

Andrew Surman (22, Wolves)
Had moved from Southampton for £1.2million in the summer of 2009 and was involved in a Molineux friendly against Real Valldolid as Mick McCarthy’s men prepared for their new Premier League campaign.
Big money summer signing Kevin Doyle missed a penalty for the home side who lost 2-0 and Surman came on as a sub in the game and had two good chances to get on the scoresheet in front of a crowd of just over 10,000.

Grant Holt (28, Norwich)
Having appeared against Wigan in a 3-2 friendly win at Carrow Road a week earlier, Holt made his full Norwich debut against Colchester and looked really out of his depth on a day where no City player emerged with any distinction. Four days later at Yeovil he helped himself to a hat-trick, his first competitive goals in a City shirt.

Simeon Jackson (22, Gillingham)
While Holt was struggling to do anything against Colchester, Jackson was having a field day on August 8, 2009 with a hat-trick against Swindon, who included Anthony McNamee in their line up at The Priestfield Stadium.
Gillingham were 1-0 up at half time when Jackson bagged his first with a cracking right foot shot. The Gills were leading 3-0 with five minutes to go when Jackson hit two more to complete his hat-trick and make the final score 5-0. He was taken off in the last minute to a standing ovation.
Watch Jackson’s hat-trick on August 8, 2009 by clicking here.
As part of the deal that took Jackson to City last summer, Cody McDonald, the man who scored Norwich’s consolation against Colchester, went to Gillingham on a season-long loan.

Ten players I hope Paul Lambert doesn’t sign for Norwich City this summer

Norwich are in the Premier League so let the rumour mill commence. We’ve already been linked with all kinds of players and I am sure every Norwich fan has contemplated his dream summer signings. While we can all sit back and watch to see who comes in to Carrow Road over the next 100 or so days, there are plenty of players I for one hope we don’t sign. Based on past signings and the kind of players that seem to join newly promoted clubs of Norwich stature, I’ve compiled a top ten list for fun of the men I hope we don’t see waving a Norwich scarf in front of the media this summer.

Ten: Matthew Upson, 32, West Ham.
I’ve never really seen the big deal with Upson but he qualifies as he’s Norfolk-born, probably going down with West Ham and has been the subject of rumours from the Premier League big boys for a while.
A year ago Upson was the joint England top scorer at the World Cup and rumoured to be wanted by Roy Hodgson at Liverpool. After an injury-hit year he’s done little to enhance his reputation from last year and with the Hammers facing relegation, it’s likely he’ll be sold by those lovely characters on the Hammers board.
Why would it be wrong to go for Upson? There are cheaper defenders to be unearthed elsewhere. Signing Leon Barnett would mean far more to us City fans rather than a weary, injury-hit pro who has seen better days. Signing someone like Upson would feel a little bit like signing Thomas Helveg again.

Nine: Emmerson Boyce, 31, Wigan.
I remember clearly the complete lack of joy I felt at our signings in the summer of 2004, with Simon Charlton’s arrival from Bolton the ultimate lowlight. I’m sure there’s going to be a player who arrives this summer that will leave us City fans wondering quite why they were signed and for me, the likes of Emerson Boyce at Wigan typify that sort of player.
There’s always a Damien Francis/Hermann Hreidarsson who is happy to flee relegated teams in order to stay in the Premier League and a season at Norwich is now a desirable shop window for any professional to sit in for a year.
Signing a Premier League regular like Boyce or Titus Bramble/Danny Gabbidon/Jody Craddock would do nothing for the morale of the club. I’m sure Paul Lambert wouldn’t go down this route but we’ve been down this road before – remember Steve Walsh!

Eight: Craig Mackail-Smith, 27, Peterborough.
City dodged a massive bullet by not picking him up in March in order to propel us into the Premier League. Simeon Jackson did the job for us and saved the club £3m. While he’s knocked goals in for fun in League One last season, a move for someone with only one season of Championship experience isn’t advisable. If we want a regular lower league goalscorer from last term with limited Championship pedigree then let’s just play Cody McDonald and save the cash for someone else.Ask any City fan who they’d rather see coming on at Old Trafford or Anfield and I think everyone would say Cody any day.

Seven: David Bentley, 26, Tottenham.
One of my overriding memories of the 2004/05 campaign was sitting in the Craven Cottage sunshine in the final minutes of our last Premier League season and watching Bentley and Damien Francis smirk at Norwich’s desperate situation.
Norwich were 6-0 down at Fulham and while Adam Drury was almost in tears, Francis and Bentley seemed to be slightly embarrassed yet not too bothered at City’s demise. Both knew they wouldn’t have to slog in out in the Championship the following season.
Since then, Bentley’s career has stuttered and stalled, briefly promising to burst into life at Blackburn but he failed at Tottenham and hasn’t done anything special on loan at Birmingham.
I hope beyond all else that we don’t sign someone like Bentley. I don’t expect him to be high on Paul Lambert’s shopping list, but he stands for exactly what we don’t need: a hunger less washed-up pro who thinks his status in the game is far bigger than it is. A bit like Mark Fotheringham really. Norwich isn’t about players like that, especially in the Premier League.

Six: James Beattie, 33, Rangers.
The one player I’m sure Grant Holt will be compared to next season by all those Premier League experts who don’t really know much about Norwich City or Grant Holt is James Beattie. Similar build, similar style, just one is on the up and the other is on the way down career wise.
Beattie’s officially a Rangers player on loan at Blackpool where he’s been since the final day of the January transfer window and hasn’t scored yet. He hasn’t actually scored a competitive goal since October 2009 when he was at Stoke and he’ll be 34 during next season.
I accept we’ll probably need strikers as back up for Simeon Jackson and Holt but James Beattie? No thanks.

Five: Shaun Wright-Phillips, 29, Manchester City.
A player who will almost certainly be on the move this summer – SWP was linked with a move to City in the transfer window which was probably false but certainly made the Ruel Fox Hall of Fame banner at Carrow Road start to shake uncontrollably with rage.
However ridiculous that rumour was or not, he’s not wanted by Manchester City and with the club in the Champions League and with cash galore to spend, SWP would probably relish a move to any Premier League club next season.
SWP would be such a wrong move, coming down here and unsettling our club spirit with his big time antics and, god forbid, his dad suddenly becoming an honorary Norwich fan.
SWP – go to West Ham, that’s the sort of over-hyped under-achieving club that would suit you. And besides we’ve got Anthony McNamee anyway.

Four: Kris Boyd, 27, Middlesbrough.
Cash-strapped Middlesbrough’s big early season signing struggled to do anything at the Riverside Stadium and promptly was loaned out to Nottingham Forest once Boro’s chances of getting into the play-offs had evaporated.
I know our chief scout has links with Rangers so I just hope we don’t go down this road. I expect Boyd to join Forest permanently if they do manage to go up through the play-offs but if they don’t, Boro will surely look to off load him elsewhere.
This for me has all the memories of a Rob Earnshaw signing. Earnie wasn’t a bad player, you just never really felt he was going to stick around and the same could be said of Boyd. He’s not made the grade in England and I’d hate him to try and take advantage of City by trying it with us in the Premier League.

Three: Andy Reid, 28, Sunderland.
A player who has destroyed Norwich on a couple of past occasions, notably for Charlton in 2007 and with Sunderland in 2009, Reid has always been a capable performer. He’s short and played for the Republic of Ireland and has a mean shot on him, but that’s where the similarities with our star midfielder Wes Hoolahan end (even though Reid is listed as the same height and weight as Wes!).
Reid has recently been at Blackpool but has hardly done much to keep them up. Two years ago I’d have been delighted if we’d signed someone like this, but now this is exactly the sort of player we don’t want: a player whose career has stalled, whose living on past glories and would expect big wages.
We’ve got the Premier League’s Irish magician in Wessi, we don’t need a chubby imposter on our books as back up.

Two: Robert Green, 31, West Ham.
Another popular name being thrown around is dear old Greeno. Whether West Ham stay up or not there are probably at least 15 Premier League clubs who would sign the former City man at the drop of a hat and, like Bellamy, he has no loyalty to Norwich anymore. Norwich can’t compete with the bigger clubs, such as Arsenal or even Manchester United, who could be interested so let’s not get carried away that we can. There are plenty of other ex-Norwich goalkeepers out there who would be better signings than Green and while I’m not suggesting that signing David Marshall or Fraser Forster would be a good idea either, I think a possible move for Matt Gilks wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

One: Craig Bellamy, 31, Manchester City.
Let’s put this one straight to bed. Norwich don’t want to sign Craig Bellamy and the chances of him coming to Carrow Road are slimmer than Simon Whaley joining Barcelona. Bellamy is largely paid by Manchester City’s millions yet nailed his colours to the mast last August when he signed for his home city club Cardiff. Had Bellars signed for Norwich then, we’d surely have expected him to cast the money to one side and sign for Norwich full time. But he’s Cardiff’s man now and it’s 11 years since he left Norwich. Let’s hope he stays at Cardiff in or out of the Premier League.

Sheer joy all around Carrow Road as season ends with meaningless 2-2 draw with Coventry

How do you sum up the sheer joy all around Carrow Road today after the final game of the season against Coventry?
Everywhere you looked there was a photo waiting to be taken from the buzz around the ground before kick off to the walk home for the final time this season.
If you'd have told me ten months ago that City would end this season with a 2-2 draw at home to Coventry I'd have probably assumed that it was a clash between two mid-table teams with nothing to play for.
As it was, there was nothing to play for after City were promoted on Monday and then learnt that QPR wouldn't be dropped any points over the Alejando Faurlin affair.
The only real unfinished business of the afternoon was announcing the player of the season. Every City fan knew it would be either Wes Hoolahan or Grant Holt, with Russell Martin the alternative vote for those who just couldn't decide or thought it should go to the unsung hero.
As it was City's skipper Holt took the award, ahead of Martin in second and Hoolahan in third. That seemed about right, despite Hoolahan's superbly impressive season. I have no doubt that he will be the star of Norwich's Premier League campaing.
So the game was just one excuse for a party really and among all the fanfares, flags, banners, beach balls, balloons and scarfs, a game of football threatened to break out for just a couple of minutes.
Grant Holt gave City the lead, Coventry equalised. Holt came off and Dani Pacheco came on and scored, before Coventry equalised. Game over, and then on to the celebrations.
The players came back on the pitch and took the trophy, Paul Lambert spoke to the fans, Marc Tierney did somersaults and waved a large flag, their were fireworks, players walking around with their sons and daughters on their shoulders and joy all round.
After two years in which City have been at the top of the table and getting points and goals under their belt with routine fashion, next season is going to be so different.
Of course that's a massive understatement, but I for one am going to relish every second of our battle to stay in the top flight for at least a season.

Opponents Coventry show just how far Norwich City have come

Norwich v Coventry at Carrow Road looked nothing other than a potential mid-table slugfest when the Championship fixture list came out last June – but what amazing circumstances this match is going to take place in.
While Coventry have hovered around in mid-table for much of the season, Norwich have been right up there all along and on Monday secured promotion to the Premier League.
It’s ironic that it’s Coventry we’re playing today – along with the likes of Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton, the Sky Blue and the Canaries are probably thought of by the rest of the football world of teams of about the same size. Growing up I always thought that Coventry and Norwich were like that – sporadic success and great players but nothing particularly long term about them in terms of success.
Back in 1984/85 before final days in the top flight became proper final days – as in the games all started at the same time, a crazy bit of scheduling meant Coventry still had games to play to save their season and send Norwich down, which they did by beating an Everton side in the midst of resting their players for two cup finals in a matter of days.
When Norwich went down in 1994/95, Coventry stayed in the top flight for another handful of seasons and seemed to pull away from Norwich in terms of quality. They boasted Darren Huckerby and Dion Dublin before they saw out their careers at Norwich a decade later, they came to Carrow Road in December 1999 as Premier League big boys and hammered us 3-1 in the FA Cup and worse of all, nine months later, they paid an unbelievable £6million for our starlet Craig Bellamy.
Fast forward to February 2009 and Coventry’s last visit to Carrow Road and the difference between the two was still being felt. The Sky Blues were a solid Championship side, the complete opposite of what Bryan Gunn’s Norwich were. We were a mix of loan signings heading for the drop – the likes of Otsemobor, Grounds, Cureton, Cort, Fotheringham, Daley, Gow and Bertrand were on the City team sheet that day, while Coventry had a pretty good Championship squad.
City went down of course and it back in August 2009 the day after our opening League One disaster against Colchester, I sat down and watched Ipswich lose 2-1 at Coventry on the opening day of last season.
‘I’d give anything just to be a solid Championship side like Coventry’ were my thoughts.
Today, as we welcome back the likes of Sammy Clingan, who flew the nest upon relegation, and David Bell, who I always rated but didn’t really fit in at Carrow Road, being a solid Championship side like Coventry are the last things on my mind.

Ten things about Norwich City’s promotion season we probably won’t remember.

Norwich City’s amazing season is all but over and while I’m sure the events of April and May 2011 will enter Canary folklore forever, there are plenty of interesting stories to this season that will be forgotten while we sip champagne and celebrate our yellow and green heroes
Here’s a reminder of 10 things about this season we’ve probably already forgotten!

10: Michael Nelson’s departure
Poor Michael Nelson’s brief Norwich City career never really rose to illustrious heights, but if Norwich had an unsung hero for most of Paul Lambert’s first 75 or so games in charge it had to be the Admiral.
Signed by Bryan Gunn, Nelson was unfortunate to make his debut in the 7-1 loss to Colchester on the first day of last season and then found under Lambert that he was anything but first choice. I remember seeing him at Wycombe in the first game of 2010 and he was quite frankly awful. But let us remember that it was he who got the winner at Charlton last April that gave Norwich promotion, it was he who started this season partnering Elliot Ward in central defence.
Nelson hit a late consolation on the first night against Watford but when Leon Barnett joined on loan from WBA, his time was numbered. Nelson’s scored a crucial goal at home to Sheffield United in December when City had gone 1-0 down in a game he partnered Jens Berthal Askou in central defence.
Towards the end of the January transfer window, he was left the club for Scunthorpe.
His last great moment at Carrow Road came last month when he was part of the Scunthorpe side that lost 6-0 to City.

9: Jake Humphrey presents the Carrow Road derby
Just like Sky’s Simon Thomas, Jake’s often had to hide his understandable glee at City’s rise up the league table while presenting on television, but when Norwich hosted Ipswich on November 28 last year, Jake just couldn’t help showing his allegiance.
Joined in the studio by Steve Claridge, Danny Mills and Matt Holland, Jake did well before the kick off not mentioning the fact he was a City boy at heart, but with Norwich 2-1 up at the break due to a Grant Holt brace, he couldn’t resist but refer to the Carlisle-born striker as “Holty” to the nationwide watching audience.

8: Grant Holt rumoured to be leaving Norwich in January transfer window
He ultimately signed a big new contract in April, but in the days after Christmas it looked like Holt was almost certain to be leaving Carrow Road in the January transfer window. Wigan, West Ham, Bolton and Blackpool were rumoured to want to spend around £2million on the striker. Nothing seemed to come from City that he wasn’t for sale and after the win over QPR on New Year’s Day the transfer window opened and City fans held their breath.
A week later against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup Holt wasn’t in the starting line up which some City fans took as a sign he may be on his way. No need to panic though, half an hour from the end he came on for Aaron Wilbraham which meant he was cup tied. Of course the rest is history.

7: Craig Mackail-Smith almost signs for Norwich
One of the curious near misses for City was in the middle of March when Paul Lambert and co were suddenly locked in a tussle with Barry Fry and co over a transfer fee for Craig Mackail-Smith. Norwich were reported to be one of six clubs to have offers for the striker turned down by the Posh board, but then things turned a little edgy.
Mackail-Smith said he wanted to join Norwich and would be leaving London Road in the summer anyway as his contract was over, Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony demanded £2m up front for the 27-year-old plus a further £1m which was believed to be around £500,000 more than City wanted to offer. Posh boss Darren Ferguson told Paul Lambert to make a serious offer. Lambert voted with his feet and snapped up Sam Vokes and Dani Pacheco on loan instead.
I’m sure the whole City board were thrilled with how this bit of business turned out.

6: Ipswich fan’s astonishing online attack on Norwich City
The internet has done many things good and bad for football fans, but when Ipswich fan ‘IpswichCrazy’ started offering his opinions on all things ITFC this season, us City fans sat up, watched and had a good old laugh.
The highlight of his You Tube rants was when IpswichCrazy excelled himself with a bizarre homophobic rant about City fans and the decided that Grant Holt was actually some kind of villain that needed to be dealt with a trip to hell.
“Norwich City football club are going to hell. The perverted club in Norfolk is accused of employing pervert players and pervert managers and pervert board members and especially a pervert player known as Holt.
“The dirty scumbag Holt dives in the box asking for penalties when he’s a diving toerag cheater. I am fed up of tall these cheaters. Grant Holt of Norwich City, you are going to Hell.
The clip has been viewed online by more than 50,000 people.

5: That amazing FA Cup run!
Give Paul Lambert his dues – he clearly doesn’t like cup competitions getting in the way of pushes for promotion. Despite taking Norwich City from the depths of League One to the Premier League in 99 games, his FA Cup record at Norwich is shocking!
In three games Norwich have twice gone out to League One teams and his only win came at Paulton Rovers in November 2009.
This year, sandwiched between fantastic home results against QPR and Cardiff, City embarrassingly crashed out at home to Leyton Orient.

4. Adam Drury’s goal against Leicester
At the end of September City were still struggling for consistency, and after going a goal down to managerless Leicester after just one minute, it looked like another tough night at Carrow Road.
But City rallied and went 2-1 up early in the second half with a Wes Hoolahan penalty.
Then came one of those rare moments – an Adam Drury goal – and what a goal it was. Hoolahan held the ball up in the middle of the park and slid the ball down the left channel to an onrushing Drury who picked up the ball and chipped the keeper over the advancing goalkeeper. It was his first City goal since the 4-4 draw against Middlesborough in the Premier League season of 2004/05.
The goal was soon forgotten as Leicester made it 3-2 and then Hoolahan himself scored one of the goals of the season with a stunning long distance strike.

3. Grant Holt’s derby day moustache
It’s that man Grant Holt again and that moustache he sported when he scored his derby day treble against Ipswich. The whole Norwich City team supported Movember, an Australian charity initiative to support prostate cancer than involves men growing moustaches for the whole month of November. Signs of growth were reported on Simon Lappin within minutes of November 1 but others, such as Michael Nelson, were not so successful.
Fate would have it that when the BBC cameras arrived to transmit the derby against Ipswich on the 28th of the month, City looked like a team of players from the late 1970s.
Holt hogged the headlines though with his hat-trick, and celebrated the third by lifting up a BBC microphone and placing it over the growth of whiskers above his upper lip.
The ‘tache was clearly proving too much for Holt – he’d shaved it off by the time he came out and spoke to the press for the post match interviews.

2: Lighter gate
When Grant Holt (yes him again) was harshly sent off against Reading in November, Norwich fans outlined Ian Harte as a nasty piece of work. The former Leeds man’s reaction to a Holt tackle lead to the City skipper getting his marching orders although it looked like any contact between the pair has been slight to say the least.
In the lead up to the City v Reading game in February, Norwich fans decided to give Ian Harte a special welcome. Every time he touched the ball he was booed, his name was sung along with a variety of expletives and there was someone in the lower Barclay who wanted to show Harte just what he thought of him.
With 20 minutes to go Harte was preparing to take a throw in right in the corner of the Jarrold Stand/Barclay touchline. An object, was thrown at Harte from the Lower Barclay, clipped him on the shoulder and bounced up and appeared to strike the linesman.Skipper Holt was frustrated, picking up the lighter and throwing it to the floor, before handing it to a steward.While the stewards entered the crowd looking for a culprit, Reading broke down the left, Leon Barnett pulled up with a hamstring injury (which ended his season) and Reading won a corner. For a minute or two Carrow Road went crazy. The stewards were in the bottom of the Barclay hauling out fans, Barnett was in the opposite corner getting treatment, Zak Whitbread was trying to come on and Reading were waiting to take a corner. Thankfully City didn’t concede. Barnett went off, Zak came on, the Barclay calmed down, the lino was fine and the game continued.
(Picture credit: EDP)

1: Grant Holt’s opening day court case
City’s opening match of the season at home to Watford was moved to the Friday night for television coverage and the one big story leading up to the game was that Grant Holt was likely to miss it due to a court appearance.
Holt has denied a charge of failing to give the identity of the driver of a car allegedly caught speeding in Shropshire in 2009 while he was at Shrewbury Town. Magistrates were asked to postpone the case at Market Drayton in Shropshire on the afternoon of the opening day so Holt could play at Carrow Road – but they rejected it.
Stories began to circulate that Holt would prepare for the match by driving 200 miles from Shropshire to Norwich and it was set to be a race against time whether or not the striker would make it.
It turned out to be a load of nonsense – Holt was sentenced in his absence and started the opening game of the season.

Russell Martin gets my vote for Norwich City’s player of the season.

Two days to go until we find out who the Barry Butler player of the year for this most memorable of seasons, and my vote has gone to our outstanding right back Russell Martin.
I’m sure most City fans will agree that while Andrew Crofts was excellent in the first half of the season and Simeon Jackson has shone towards the end, it’s really a three-horse race for this year’s award.
That would be between Martin, skipper Grant Holt and midfield talisman Wes Hoolahan. So why does Martin edge the award?
Well, he’s played every minute of every league match this season, itself a remarkable achievement for an outfield player. He’s also scored five goals, all of them crucial – a goal against Doncaster in September in what turned out to be a rare away defeat which dragged City back into the game, a great goal at Reading in a key 3-3 draw, the winner of QPR on New Year’s Day and a last minute goal against Cardiff a fortnight later which gave City another vital point against a big promotion rival.
Finally there was his fifth goal which gave City a 4-1 lead at Portman Road last month.
I personally thought the goal at Reading was so good that I couldn’t resist buying the shirt he wore when he scored that goal when the Canaries auctioned them on eBay.
Don’t get me wrong, Hoolahan has been superb, always wanting the ball, doing things we’ve never seen before in a City shirt, and Holt has lead the line superbly, just as Mark Hughes did a generation ago. Opposition defenders hate playing against him, opposition fans just simply hate him, but we don’t care.
Holt and Hoolahan have already appeared in the PFA Team of the Season for the Championship so they’ve already been recognised, which is why I think it’s fitting it goes to an unsung hero.
While Martin’s impressive feat of playing in every game and notching five goals stands for itself, it’s just the tip of the iceburg.
Remember how we struggled at right back before him. Dare I mention Jon Otsemobor who was, in comparison, quite frankly useless. Dear old ‘Semmy’ used to run to the half way line at cracking pace and then stop, cut inside almost at a right angle and invariable seek out a two yard pass to Mark Fotheringham.
Martin has pace to burn and he’s been involved in some key moments, particularly in the big games – his Carrow Road goals gave City four points against QPR and Cardiff, he was full of running in the last ten minutes against Derby – remember it was his cross/shot that ended up bouncing off Simeon Jackson and into the City net and it was him who kept Craig Bellamy in his pocket when the former City man returned to City back in January.
Apart from that he seems like the nicest guy in football. I sit in the Jarrold Stand, a dozen or so metres up in the stands from where he runs up and down every two weeks. He always salutes the crowd, waves to his brother in the centre of the stand and nobody seems to have a bad word to say about him.
More importantly in a week when we’ve been promoted to the Premier League, most City fans will no doubt agree that whatever we need next season in terms of playing staff, the need for a first team right back is simply not on Paul Lambert’s shopping list.

I've got a Champions League final ticket - but why do I feel so guilty about it?

Barcelona v Manchester United is the dream Champions League final and I for one am thrilled about it.
I’m not a supporter of either side, but whether it’s right or not I will actually be at Wembley in a little over three weeks as I have a ticket for the final. But, while I’m really looking forward to the big match, I do think it’s massively unfair that I’ve got one when thousands of United and Barcelona fans won’t be able to go to the big match.
The final whistle had only just blown at Old Trafford last night when tickets to the final were already been dubbed ‘the hottest ticket in town’ and today the internet is full of people looking for tickets.
I went into the ballot back in March for one of the 11,000 tickets that UEFA wants to sell to the general public in the host country. So, for a bit of fun I applied, not knowing who would be in the final or if I would be successful.
Obviously fans of Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United or Arsenal had the same chance to apply, but the average Arsenal fan wasn’t realistically going to apply for a ticket costing at least £150 (mine was £225 plus a £26 booking fee) when there was a chance they would be watching Real Madrid v Schalke.
So fans of these four teams probably didn’t go into the ballot, while myself, a Norwich City fan, was able to apply and get a ticket.
It does seem a bit strange and I feel for all the United fans who would love to be in my shoes, I know how I would feel if the team I followed had made it and a fan of neither club had a ticket.
Sometimes it seems it pays to be a neutral fan and it’ll be a great game to add to my football-watching CV, but something inside me says it’s just a little bit wrong that I have this ticket, even though I’ve paid through the nose for it!

We did it!

WOW!
Norwich have just won promotion back to the Premier League and by the magic of Twitter, our on-loan striker Dani Pacheco has posted his pic of the City dressing room and our players celebrating at Fratton Park.
It's the ultimate prize for us City fans, a slight shame we didn't do it at Carrow Road on Saturday but I think I can live with that for now
I never thought after watching us lose at home to Watford nine months ago that we'd be able to say that: WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE!!