A Season Review...We're BACK!!!

This Season Review of mine, won’t be featured across 4 separate DVD releases like the clubs has been. Yes it was an epic season, but it wasn’t Lord of the bloody Rings. Having said that I insist that if the club can misspell its own name on the spine of the City 360 DVD then I can be excused any mistakes in here OK?

Now, I don’t want to be all “I told ya so!” about last season, because A) I’m like well cooler than that, and B) Literally EVERYBODY could see Neil Adams wasn’t the right fit for the job so I was hardly Nostradamus. The first half of the season was underwhelming, whenever we’d look like we’d found our feet in the league we’d trip again. One of Neil Adams’ strengths should have been his handling of the media having spent so long working in amongst them but then he’d speak about trying to win the league rather than trying to win the next game or he’d wind up opponents with dismissive sentiments about them in press conferences which they could use as motivation against us. His return was announced today and I'm sure he'll make a fine Loan Manager, but that won't stop it sounding like he's now working in a bank. Also in his defence, he beat Ipswich and that is worthy of applause and adulation. Being the Norwich City Manager is a big job with massive pressures and he never seemed terribly comfortable behind the wheel.

Sir Alex Neil was a leftfield appointment, and at the time of his appointment I wasn’t so much apprehensive as I was confused and disoriented. “Who the hell is he? He’s the manager of WHO?? But he has no experience in this League and he…” that was until I saw his first interview and all those nagging doubts were set aside because when it comes down to it he’s just a hugely impressive and reassuring bloke who talks with an assured calmness and steel. The reintroduction of Seb Bassong, the faith he showed in Lewis Grabban. he seems to make good players better, which is a precious commodity. He will go far, hopefully taking us with him. David McNally deserves massive credit for his appointment.

The rest of the season is a glorious blur. We looked like we were going to rocket up into the automatic places but then Boro derailed us on one of the most frustrating and angering games of football I’ve ever watched. They fluked an own goal and then sat back (literally sometimes) and timewasted for the rest of the match. It was anti-football. They rolled around the ground at the slightest touch because there was nothing the ref could do but stop the game if they grabbed their head, so they were all falling prey to mysteriously short lived injuries. The worst example was when their goalkeeper went down with cramp…their bloody goalkeeper! They celebrated after the game as if they’d assured themselves of Promotion, which our 2 main rivals for promotion might have viewed as premature because they were both now in superior positions. Incredible scenes. Embarrassing scenes. Season defining scenes? Nope!

It meant we were destined for the playoffs with a probable, increasingly inevitable MegaDerby against Ipswich. One of the most pleasing aspects of the season is that every single goal  mattered. Every save mattered. Every block mattered because a different result here or there and we’d never have gotten our dream Play-Off Semi-Final victory against Ipswich. What a dream it was. That home leg was something else. An incredible atmosphere with an unbelievable game of football to match it. It seems divisive to pick players out for praise but Wes Hoolahan was superb. He's a bizarrely maligned player of ours in some circles but he is an extraordinary player that we are lucky to have. Bringing Wessi here is pretty much the only good thing Glen Roeder did for this club (and even then he tried to play him as winger). Nathan Redmond’s form was a delight to see as well, he timed his emergence into a genuine game changer perfectly. The final whistle lead to euphoric scenes which Carrow Road hasn’t seen the like of before. Some people were on the pitch, then some more and then half of Norwich followed by some horses. Beating Ipswich and booking a day out in Wembley…absolutely perfect day of football. At the time it was probably the best game I've ever been to...but that lasted about a week.

I have been to Wembley and seen Norwich City lift silverware and secure promotion to the Premier League. It still seems so surreal. It was simply the best day of football EVER. I kept expecting there to be a sting in the tail but it never came. The ticket procurement was a slight worry but I was convinced I was going to get a ticket somehow. I managed to get one with some friends which we thought were going to be quite high up, but turned out to be amazing seats perfectly placed to the right of our goal. Wembley really know how to put on a game of football, I’d been a couple of times before but nothing prepared me for this game. The last game I saw was England v Scotland and the Play-Off Final battered it for atmosphere and excitement. Basically everything went right and we got the sweetest of revenge against Injury-prone Boro. Despite that, I truly hope they get promoted next year. Their fans were incredibly friendly and magnanimous in defeat, many of them wishing us well. Their fans deserve promotion and Boro have a great owner who loves the club like we do.

 

Delia was out there celebrating on the Wembley pitch and it reminded me how lucky we are to have her and her husband as owners. They're true fans and the sooner we organise a statue of Delia the better. Ideally of THAT moment at halftime against Man City all those years ago.

Last summer we were asked to leave the best party in town and since then we’ve fought off all the competition for the last ticket back in…so let’s get in there a bust a move!!