Carrow Road Memories: Flashback - Carrow Road 25 years ago

England captain Bryan Robson - Carrow Road hasn't changed a bit from
this picture

Things you don't see at Carrow Road on matchdays - dads carrying milk crates for their sons to stand on to get a better view on the terrace, the two old boys carrying the Golden Goal times around the pitch on a board... and young boys with new cameras eager to take photos.

I am sure every kid took a camera to a football match at some time but now, in the age of android phones where everyone has a decent camera, the magic of taking your own footie snaps has clearly gone.

The first time I did it was on March 5 1988, 25 seasons ago when Norwich took on then second place Manchester United in the old First Division.

The old Barclay Stand scoreboard announced Jesper Olsen's arrival

 United were chasing Liverpool all the way for the title in what would be their best finish under Alex Ferguson. They'd recently added Steve Bruce to their ranks, and Norwich gave a debut to his replacement, Andy Linighan in this game.

Norwich won the game 1-0 with a late Robert Fleck goal, but I was more keen on getting photos of Bryan Robson, who was then the biggest star in English football and was three months away from leading his country to Euro '88 where despite England having a disaster, Robson emerged as probably the only decent player.

I came across these photos the other day and they show Carrow Road back in 1988, one year before the Hillsborough disaster changed the blueprint for the modern English football stadium.

United's Brian McClair in the foreground with the River End in the
distance. The bottom tier was terrace and their was no corner infill

Apart from the huge amount of hair on show in the picture of Robson, the one big difference is the Barclay End - remember that scoreboard that always seemed to have the odd light missing.

Happy days indeed - and despite turning 13 less than two weeks after this game, such was the way technology worked back then that I probably didn't see these photos for another three months as I would have had to use up the film and then send off for it to be developed!