City head to Norwich on Saturday for the reverse fixture of the one on the opening day of the season when optimism was so high following a hard fought single goal victory. The hopes that victory engendered of a top six challenge have never looked like being fulfilled, but City head to Norfolk with morale higher than it has been in months following two successive wins after months of gloom.
One of the reasons why people felt so upbeat after Romaine Sawyers’ goal separated the sides back in July was that Norwich were widely tipped to be title challengers given how they responded to their last two relegations from the Premier League, but, although they are certainly in the running for a top six finish, they look nowhere near the team their 20/21 one was.
Form at Carrow Road has been patchy for Norwich this season, but 3-1 wins in their last two games suggests that they are getting their home results right entering the last quarter of the campaign and, realistically, I’d say a loss is the most likely outcome for us on Saturday – although it may be to our advantage that Norwich had a game on Tuesday night whereas we’ve had a free week.
Here’s questions from each of the last seven decades on Norwich with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. He made his debut for us against Norwich during this decade and went on to play for Millwall, Barry and Newport , can you name him?
70s. Southend was the closest this midfielder got to his Hampshire birthplace during a long career in playing and management. Starting off at a place which has featured a gold medal winning swimmer and the singer of a song called “It’s all over now” which charted in the UK (the same person was also in Hollyoaks) among its most famous residents, he got a transfer to a higher league after signing for another club which prominently displays an animal in its badge. Most of the two hundred plus league appearances he made over the next six years were in the First Division before he moved on to Norwich for a couple of years during which he played against us twice in five weeks while only picking up a single point in the process.. After that, it was it was back to his first club for a spell which saw him make the transformation from player into manager, although there was a solitary playing appearance in 1979 while managing at a place with a link to the capital. Can you name him?
80s. Ahem, pretend that Martian leader is, somehow, in Norwich midfield facing City! (5,7)
90s. Half of retailer’s advance.
00s. He played against us more than twenty years ago for Norwich and eventually ended up, via Turkey among other places, at a lower division club where he spent most of the 2010s, scoring a hundred plus goals for them in the process. Now, at the age of thirty eight, he’s back with the same lower division team again, who is he?
10s. Now performing at Vodafone Park, this forward was his first club’s second youngest ever first teamer when he made his debut for them at the start of this decade. Norwich was his next destination and he was an automatic choice for them during the three years he was there, but he, probably, did better at his next club, who may well feel they could do with him now – internationally, all of his senior football, such as it has been, has come against Germany. Who am I describing?
20s. Since playing against City for Norwich during this decade, he’s overcome testicular cancer and is currently playing on loan for a side which is propping up their division – who?
Answers:
60s. A 0-0 draw at Carrow Road in August 1962 was the first of four games Scottish forward Gordon Fraser played for . We signed him from Forres Mechanics in 1961 let him go two years later when he teamed up with Millwall. He was no more successful in London than he was in Cardiff and was still awaiting his first goal in senior football south of the border when he returned to Scotland to play for his home town team, Elgin. However, he was back in south Wales in 1965 with Barry Town and he spent the 66/67 campaign at Neeport where he managed to score twice in thirteen league games for them.
70s. Peter Morris started off at Mnasfield (birthplace of of Rebecca Addlington and where someone called Bernard Jewry spent his childhood years. Jewry became lead singer of Shane Fenton and the Fentones and, later, enjoyed greater success in the seventies as Alvin Stardust – he also was in Hollyoaks during the 90s), before moving to Ipswich in 1968. Morris joined Norwich in 1974 and was there for two years, during which he faced City in December 74 and January 75 in games which finished 1-1 and 2-1 to City despite us being relegated and Norwich promoted that season. Morris returned to Mansfield and was managing them for the next two years before moving to Peterborough where he made a playing comeback which lasted just the one game.
80s. Peter Mendham.
90s. Spencer Prior.
00s. Ian Henderson was in the Norwich team which beat City 4-1 at Carrow Road in December 2002. He was with Rochdale between 2013 and 2020 where he scored one hundred and twelve goals in just under three hundred Football League appearances – he’s now back at Spotland following a spell with Salford City.
10s. Nathan Redmond played for Birmingham’s first team at the age of sixteen and joined Norwich in 2013. Redmond signed for Southampton in 2016 and joined Turkish club Beziktas in 2022 – his one England cap came as a substitute in a game against Germany in 2017.
20s. Dan Barden played in goal for Norwich in their 2-1 win at Cardiff City Stadium in January 2021 and is currently on loan to Maidstone following his recovery from testicular cancer.