[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Norwich City
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday September 12th - 15:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Norwich City to the John Smith's Stadium for the start of the 2020/21 Sky Bet Championship campaign on Saturday afternoon. It's a meeting of the last two seasons bottom teams of the Premier League. We ended up relegated with 16 points, not very good, I know. But Norwich only managed to total 21 points, only 5 more than us, but as we got ridiculed by know it all pundits, TalkBollocks in particular, the Canaries were lauded as something of a great side, even though they were 14 points off safety. Yeah, whatever!

Both teams got beat last week in the Carabooboo Cup. We lost to a team from a league below us, and Norwich lost to Luton, a fellow Championship side. However, they had 15 players away on international duty, whereas we didn't have anyone missing. Or did we? Well one fella was away playing with the Spanish u21 team and our representatives travelled all the way to España to give him his medical. He signed on at the John Smith's on Monday night with a 3 year contract. Just as the last bloke we went abroad to give a medical to, left the club. Remember that at the 2018 World Cup?
Well let's hope Pipa turns out to be more use to us than Ramadan Sobhi!


Who's new? So we have a new signing who hopefully will be on show in this match. His name is Gonzalo Ávila Gordón, also known as Pipa. He's a right back and will be wearing the no 2 shirt. How traditional!
Born in 1998 in Esparreguera, he joined Espanyol as a ten year old, progressing through their ranks all the way to the first team. Before reaching the first team though, he went out on loan to 2nd division Gimnàstic de Tarragona, before making his Espanyol debut. Pipa started last season playing in their Europa League campaign and made his La Liga debut in September against RC Celta de Vigo. He only played 7 times though and the team got relegated.
And now he's here. But the question is..... Is it Piper, Pippa or Peeper?

Bienvenida, Pipa.

A brief history of Norwich City: formed in 1902, they started playing at Newmarket Road but moved to The Nest in 1908, an old disused chalk pit. The club's chairman was a keen breeder of canaries and so he changed the club colours to the familiar yellow and green they have today and the nickname stuck. They went into liquidation during the First World War but reformed in 1919 and were then admitted to the league when it was extended in 1920 and they became members of the new Division Three (South).

The Nest

They won promotion to Division Two as champions in 1934. The FA were concerned about The Nest's unsuitability to hold large crowds and so they moved to a new stadium, the one they still play in at Carrow Road. It didn't herald success though and at the end of the season before the Second World War, they were relegated. They stayed in that league after the war and in 1956/57 finished bottom of the league. Fortunately they improved in the next one as the two Division Threes were nationalised into Div 3 and 4 and having finished in the top half, the Canaries were placed in the new Division 3.

This did herald a new era of success and in 1959 they reached the FA Cup semi finals as a 3rd division club. They beat Ilford and Swindon Town in the early rounds, then went on to beat Manchester United at Carrow Road in round 3. Goals from Terry Bly (2) and Errol Crossan gave them a famous 3-0 win over Busby's world famous team. They then beat Cardiff City which gave them a 5th round tie with Spurs. After a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane, a Bly goal gave them a 1-0 win in the replay and the Canaries were in the quarter finals. Another replay was needed to see off Sheffield Utd and then they played Luton in the semis. It was back to White Hart Lane for this match, which again ended in a 1-1 draw, before the cup run came to an end at St Andrews where Luton triumphed 1-0.

The following season they got promoted to Div 2, finishing runners up behind Southampton. Club record appearance holder, Ron Ashman, skippered the Canaries through all this and then in 1962 led the club to their first trophy. This was the League Cup, in it's second season of existence, and they triumphed 4-0 on aggregate over 4th division Rochdale. The job was almost completed in the first leg as they won 3-0 at Spotland with goals from Derek Lythgoe (2) and Bill Punton, then a goal from Jimmy Hill (no not that one) finished the Dale off at Carrow Road. Ashman then took over the manager's job, with a total of 662 games behind him but couldn't get them up to the First Division.

They didn't have to wait that long though. Under the management of Ron Saunders, they won the 2nd division in 1972 and took our place at the top table as we got relegated. Whilst up there they reached the League Cup Final again, losing this time in their first visit to Wembley, beaten 1-0 by Spurs. Saunders left to manage Aston Villa and the Canaries were relegated. But they came straight back up again, finishing third behind Man Utd and Saunders' Villa team. And it was Saunders who would thwart his old club again in the next season as the Canaries reached the League Cup Final again and lost 0-1 again, with Ray Graydon scoring to give Villa the cup.

John Bond had been the manager for all this and when he left to go manage Man City, the Canaries were relegated in 1980. They came back up again in 1982, finishing 3rd behind Luton and Watford. Ken Brown was now the manager and in 1985 he guided them once more to the League Cup Final. This time they won it. After beating Preston, Aldershot, Notts County and Grimsby, they came up against their arch rivals Ipswich Town in a 2 legged semi final. They lost the first leg 0-1 at Portman Road but then the future Town management duo, John Deehan and Steve Bruce, gave them the victory at Carrow Road and they were off to Wembley again. They won it 1-0 against Sunderland, with the unfortunate Gordon Chisholm putting the ball into his own net.

Even more unfortunately, both Norwich and Sunderland were relegated at the end of the season, the Canaries becoming the first team to win a major trophy and get relegated in the same season. More bad luck as well meant they couldn't play in Europe for their League Cup win as the country ahd been banned from playing in the European competitions after the Heysel disaster.

They won the 2nd division title in 1986 to get back into the top flight and were still there when the First Division was re-branded as the Premier League in 1992. And they almost won that first Premier League, with future Town manager Mark Robins top scoring, but faded towards the end after being top for quite a while. Their fate was sealed with a 1-3 defeat at Portman Road and eventually finished 3rd behind Man U and Villa. Still it was their highest ever finish and this time they were allowed into the UEFA Cup.

They had a famous win in the 2nd round, becoming the first English team to win away at Bayern Munich. Jeremy Goss and Mark Bowen gave them a 2-1 win and then Goss scored again in the 2nd leg 1-1 draw to give them the aggregate victory. They then came up against Inter Milan, who won both legs 1-0, with Denis Bergkamp on target for both goals.

All this was with Mike Walker in the manager's hot seat, but when he left to take the Everton job, things started to go downhill. John Deehan took over but couldn't stop the slide and at the end of the 1994/95 season, they went down. And they stayed down.

Nine years they stayed in division 2, almost going down to division 3, but rallying to reach the Play Offs for the first time in 2002. They drew against Birmingham City at the Millennium Stadium but lost on penalties. It spurred them on to greater things though and they won the title in 2004, finishing 8 points ahead of West Brom. But success didn't last and they came straight back down.

They had four years in what by now was called The Championship, but when they left it was in a downward direction, to League One. And what a terrible start to League One life they had, losing 1-7 at home to Colchester United. Manager Bryan Gunn was sacked and replaced with the man who had just got him sacked, Colchester's Paul Lambert. It was a good appointment for the Canaries as he led them to the title and then straight through the Championship to the Premier League, finishing runners up behind QPR.

They had three seasons in the Prem. Lambert left for Aston Villa and just as when Ron Saunders left for Villa, the Canaries went down. They won promotion straight away, beating Middlesbrough 2-0 in the Play Offs at Wembley with goals from Huddersfield lad Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond.

Straight back down again though in 2017 as we passed them on the way up, reversing the fortunes of 1972. But they won the Championship again in 2019 and were promoted as we came down, reversing the fortunes of 2017. They finished five points ahead of Sheffield Utd, but as the Blunts easily secured their place in this season's Premier League, the Canaries are back down in the Championship again, starting out with a trip to Huddersfield Town.

Head to Head


It's level pegging in the overall head to head with 13 wins each and 17 draws.

The last time we spent time together in the same league was the 2016/17 season and we did the double over them on the way to our promotion to the Premier League. First up, just before Christmas, we went down to Carrow Road and two Elias Kachunga goals gave us the points, with Jonny Howson equalising less than a minute after the first.
The return match was in April as we got closer to Play Off qualification and this time we hammered them 3-0. After a goalless first half it was that man Kachunga again making us happy. Then a couple of lovely worked goals from Aaron Mooy and Nahki Wells secured the victory.

The previous time we played them was in 2014/15 and we had two red cards. Murray Wallace was dismissed in a 5-0 defeat down at theirs. Bit of a nightmare that one. But the red card at home was a right daft one. It was another goalless first half, but then Ishmael Miller put us one up. Wes Hoolahan then equalised for the Canaries who were pushing for promotion and the winner on the night, when up popped James Vaughan with the winner for the Terriers in added time. So chuffed was he to score against his former club that he tore of his shirt in celebration, forgetting that he'd already had a yellow card, leaving the ref no option but to send him on the walk of shame. There was no time left for Norwich to kick off, but somehow the ref managed to find a few more seconds, enough for the Canaries to muster up another equaliser, this time from a goalmouth scramble scored by Jamar Loza. Un-be-flipping-leavable!!

They did the double over us in 2009/10 as they were on route to the Premier League, coming from behind to beat us 3-1 at the Galpharm after Neal Trotman had given us an early lead.

We had six seasons in the same division in the 1990s, when our former hero Iwan Roberts would regularly score against us. He scored five times against us. Twice on Easter Monday '98 as they beat us 5-0, twice in 98/99 as they beat us 4-1 and once in a 1-1 draw in Feb 2000, all at Carrow Road.

More red cards were shown during this period. In the 98/99 match at the McAlpine, Norwich scored early on but then had their keeper, Andy Marshall sent off. We battered them for the rest of the match, but the Canaries held out for almost all of it and we only managed an equaliser when Paul Hughes put through his own net.

The game at Carrow Road in 96/97 had four red cards. They won it 2-0 with both goals coming from Darren Eadie, but we had Tom Cowan sent off, before Andy Payton and Kevin Scott both were sent off in the 59th minute. To cap it all, Eadie got his marching orders in the last minute. Earlier in the season though, Payton had scored twice as we beat them at ours 2-0.

Our first meetings came in the 1960s. We spent the entire decade together. They were promoted to Division 2 in 1960 and we first got together down at theirs where they beat us 2-0. We drew 1-1 at Leeds Road with our goal being scored by Jim Kerray. Our first victory came in the following season when two Len White goals gave us a 2-1 win at Carrow Road.

We won down there again in 1962/63. It was 3-2 this time and a hat trick from Mike O'Grady. Six weeks later, he made his England debut, scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over the Irish at Windsor Park. He was the last Huddersfield Town player to score for England and despite his two goals, he was only ever picked once more, by which time he'd moved on to Leeds and Wolves.

Mike O'Grady

So as I said, we spent the entire decade together, which came to an end with us being promoted to Division One in 1970. We won at Carrow Road again, this time 2-1 in November 1969, with goals from Bobby Hoy and Colin Dobson. But Norwich grabbed a point at Leeds Road in February, with full back Dennis Clarke getting ours. It didn't harm our charge for the championship. We'd already hit top spot and never let it go.




So what's going on down at Carrow Road? Managed nowadays by Daniel Farke, who came to Norwich from the Borussia Dortmund second team. An idea they nicked from us.

Born 43 years ago in Steinhausen, West Germany, he started out with his home town club but spent the majority of his career at SV Lippstadt 08. He was a forward, but by his own admission, was too slow and spent his footballing life in the lower leagues. He had three spells as a player there and despite putting himself down, his goals to matches was pretty impressive scoring 47 times in 57 matches.

After hanging up his boots, he was appointed manager there and in his time in charge he had them promoted twice, before going on to coach Borussia Dortmund II, when a certain David Wagner left to manage Huddersfield Town. He stayed there for a couple of seasons, then Stuart Webber left Huddersfield's Sporting Director's role and took up a similar role with Norwich. Wagner was an inspiration at Town and so Webber thought he'd try the same thing with the Canaries and so he persuaded Farke to come to Carrow Road in May 2017. Dortmund replaced him with Jan Siewert.

So did Webber's gamble pay off again? Sort of. They won the Championship in Farke's first season. But then came straight back down again.

Who's in their squad then? Well Herr Farke has been busy in the transfer market, signing 11 players so far. They did let 11 players go in the summer though. The only canary inbound I'd heard of is the ex Preston striker Jordan Hugill, who spent last season on loan from West Ham at QPR. He has taken the number 9 shirt for this season, having signed a three year contract with a fee of around £5m.

So what of the other signings? The first one in the door in the summer break was Luxembourg international midfielder Danel Sinani. Then came Danish midfielder Jacob Sørensen, an u21 international. He was swiftly followed in the door by Polish u21 international Przemysław Płacheta. Eighteen year old Bali Mumba came in next. He signed from Sunderland and had spent part of last season on loan at South Shields. Another kid signed on next, Sebastian Soto from Hannover 96, he's a USA u20 international. Kieran Dowell, a 22 year old midfielder came in next. He has joined from Everton, having been on loan in the Championship previously with Forest, Sheff Utd (playing in their promotion season), Derby and Wigan. I think he was linked with us once upon a time.

Then a few loans came in. Nineteen year old Oliver Skipp from Spurs and Xavi Quintillà, a left back from Villarreal arrived on the scene. Then on Friday Ben Gibson came in on a season long loan from Burnley. He'd had 8 years playing for his uncle's Middlesbrough before going to Turf Moor, but since signing for them, Sean Dyche has only picked him 3 times, only one of them in the league, so he could be a bit rusty.

So who's left from their latest excursion into the Premier League? Well the bad news for Championship defences is that Teemu Pukki is still there. He scored 30 goals in their promotion season, but only 11 in their relegation. Still, that's 7 more than our top scorer got in our relegation season.

In goal will probably be Tim Krul, the ex Newcastle keeper who is so old that he started out as second choice to Steve Harper. Or it could be Michael McGovern, who played for Northern Ireland at Euro 2016. He was keeper at Hamilton Academical at the time but after the tournament he followed manager Alex Neil down to Carrow Road.

The club captain is Scottish international Grant Hanley, who previously played for Blackburn and Newcastle. Alongside him in defence is German Christoph Zimmermann, who came from Dortmund and Yorkshireman Ben Godfrey, who came from York City. Max Aarons has been the regular right back for the last couple of years. Jamal Lewis, who played the entire Championship winning season as left back, has been in talks over a transfer to Newcastle this week so he may be replaced by the over rated Sam Byram. I say over rated, he was over rated by Leeds fans who thought he was the dog's bollox and cried their eyes out when he left for West Ham, who on realising they'd been sold a pup, sent him on loan to Nottingham Forest, then managed to palm him off to the Canaries last season. Also in defence is Swiss international Timm Klose.

In midfield there are Germans Lukas Rupp and Marco Stiepermann, Bosnian Mario Vrančić, Cuban Onel Hernández, Argie Emi Buendía and Norwegian Alexander Tettey. Then there's Kenny McLean who came from Aberdeen, and Todd Cantwell, who came through their youth system and played the whole of the last Premier League season.

Pukki Pieman

Last week's line up away at Luton:
50 Barden
26 Mumba
6 Zimmermann
15 Klose
31 McCallum
7 Rupp
27 Tettey
10 Dowell
18 Stiepermann
24 Martin
9 Hugill

Substitutes
8 Vrancic
25 Hernández
28 Sitti
42 McAlear
44 Omobamidele
48 Hondermarck
52 McCracken

Their line up will most certainly be different to that one in this match against us. They had 15 players away on international duty and had a 19 year old goalkeeper, Daniel Barden making his debut.


Club connections: Iwan Roberts signed for Town at the start of the 1990/91 season, brought in by Eoin Hand to replace Craig Maskell. We paid a record fee for him as well, but it was just the money we had received for Maskell from Reading. We bought him from Watford, where he had been given his debut by Graham Taylor, by which time he had already had his two front teeth knocked out. He scored his first professional goal in a First Division match against Manchester Utd at Vicarage Road, the only goal of a 1-0 win. Taylor left though for Aston Villa and the Hornets got relegated. Iwan took the plunge, dropping yet another league to join us in the 3rd division, in order to get regular first team football.

His first Town goal came at Leeds Road against Bolton Wanderers, a 4-0 win in which Keith Edwards scored the other three. As well as Edwards, Iwan had plenty of striking experience alongside him in Peter Withe and then Frank Stapleton which helped develop his ruthless streak in front of goal. He finished that first season as joint top scorer with 14, joint with Kieran O'Regan. But the next season, playing alongside Phil Starbuck and Iffy Onuora, he slammed home a post war record of 34 as we made it to the Play Offs for the first time. It would've been 35 but had one chalked off after the one he scored against Blackpool in the Autoglass Trophy got fogged off at half time. He also scored twice in a famous League Cup victory over first division Sunderland, beating them 4-0 at home and 6-1 on aggregate.

Sunderland got their revenge though, stealing our management team. Legendary Town boss Mick Buxton had come out of retirement to assist Ian Ross, but at the end of the season, after Iwan had once again top scored with 15, the Mackem's lured Buxton back to the north-east and he took Ross with him. Neil Warnock came in and for some reason didn't fancy Iwan. He was sold to 2nd division Leicester City in November and replaced with Exeter's Ronnie Jepson. Iwan left Leeds Road having scored 68 goals in a Town shirt, putting him 12th= in our all time goal scoring charts, level with Kevin McHale.

He had already been capped for Wales when we signed him from Watford and he played five times for them as a Huddersfield Town player. He wore the red shirt against Austria, Argentina, Japan (getting sent off), Albania and Moldova.

He made an immediate impact at Filbert Street, scoring twice as a sub against Wolves after coming on when they were 0-2 down to secure a draw. Later that season, he scored a hat trick against their rivals Derby County and played at Wembley against them as well in a 2-1 Play Off Final win which then saw Iwan playing in by what now was being called the Premier League. He top scored for them in the Prem with 11 but they got relegated. They made the Play Offs again, beating Crystal Palace in the Final. He missed the match though through injury and didn't make it back to the Premier League as Leicester sold him to Wolves.

He only stayed there for one season, scoring a hat trick against West Brom and helping the side reach the Play Offs, which they lost in the semi finals against Palace. Wolves had forked out £1.3m for him, but in the summer of 1997, Mike Walker paid £850,000 to take him to Carrow Road.

It wasn't the best start in a Canary shirt for him though and he struggled in that first season. Walker was sacked to be replaced by Bruce Rioch, who partnered Iwan up front with young Craig Bellamy and the pair were soon banging 'em in. Iwan top scored in that and the next season, winning Player of the Year on both occasions. He had scored five times against us in those three seasons and new manager Steve Bruce tried to re-sign him for Town in 2000 as his contract was due to end, but he decided to sign on again at Norwich.

Iwan helped the Canaries reach the Play Offs in 2002, against Birmingham City in Cardiff. He came off the bench to score the Norwich goal which put them 1-0 up in extra time, only for Birmingham to equalise through Geoff Horsfield and the match went to penalties. Iwan took and scored the first one, but saves from ex Town keeper Nico Vaesen gave the Bluenoses the victory and a place in the Premier League.

Nigel Worthington took over as manager and made Iwan captain, but he only scored 7 times that season and by the next one, he was more on the bench than in the starting line up. However, the Canaries did win the Championship that season, which would be Iwan's last at Carrow Road. His last match was the last match of the season, away at Gresty Road against Crewe. With the title already won, Worthington put Iwan in the starting line up and made him captain. Iwan repaid him by scoring twice in a 3-1 win. He left Norwich as their third highest scorer of all time with 97 goals.

His international caps tally ended on 17, but the Welsh had some really top strikers back then and he was up against the likes of Mark Hughes, Ian Rush, Dean Saunders and his Norwich team mate Bellamy.

He was 35 years old by the end of his Norwich career, but still played on, signing for Gillingham, who were a Championship club then. His debut was against Norwich's arch rivals Ipswich. There must've been a bit of the old East Anglian rivalry still in him as he got yellow carded five seconds into the match!

He had been signed for Gillingham by Andy Hessenthaler, but when he got sacked, some twerp called Stan Ternent took over and didn't get on well with Iwan. He was sent out on loan to Cambridge United, managed by his old Norwich team mate Rob Newman. He scored his 200th league goal on his debut but at the end of the season he decided to retire.

He now works in the media, splitting his time between Sky Sports, BBC Wales and the Norfolk local press. He will probably be at the John Smith's for this one.

Mark Robins will be bringing his Coventry City team to the John Smith's Stadium this season, unless he's been sacked. The game isn't scheduled until the 1st of May, which is quite a long way off yet. I'm sure he will be warmly welcomed back by whoever is in the stadium at the time as he was a very popular manager in the 18 months he was in charge here.  
He arrived in Huddersfield in February 2013 from Coventry, persuaded to leave his job there by Dean Hoyle and it was the same fella who persuaded him to leave in August the following year after a disastrous opening match of the 2014/15 season, losing 1-4 at home to Bournemouth.
Before that, a young Robins was credited with saving the job of Alex Ferguson at Man Utd. He scored the winning goal in the FA Cup against Oldham, when the media were speculating that a defeat would have seen Fergie fired. They went on to win the Cup and then everything else in the next decade and beyond.
After his days at Old Trafford ended, he went down to Norwich and played a huge part in one of their most successful periods in their history. That was in the 90s when they finished 3rd in the Premier League, qualified for the UEFA Cup and won that famous match in Munich's Olympic Stadium. He was an instant hit with the fans, scoring twice on his debut on the opening day of the very first Premier League. The Canaries won 4-2 against Arsenal at Highbury. Robins got two, Ruel Fox got one and the other was scored by...….

……..David Phillips. Norwich had paid half a million squid for Dave in 1989 and he also scored on his Canary debut, a 2-0 win away at Sheffield Wednesday. He too played a full part in all that Canary glory and in the four years there scored 18 goals in 152 games. From there he went pulling up trees in Nottigham and then came to us, signed by Peter Jackson in the Great Escape season. He made his debut away at QPR in a match we lost, but scored his first goal at the McAlpine in a 5-1 win against Oxford Utd. That was one of only three goals he scored for us, but he did play in some memorable victories that season against the likes of Bury, Crewe, Stockport, Tranmere and Wolves. He also payed in the game that secured our championship status when we beat West Brom at home.

Steve Bruce took over from Jacko in 1999, but Dave had already left Town for Lincoln. Bruce is a Norwich legend, as is the bloke he brought in as his assistant, John Deehan. Bruce signed for the Canaries from Gillingham in 1984 and made an immediate impact, scoring an own goal in the first minute of his debut against Liverpool. Deehan on the other hand was more than capable of getting it in the right net. He scored 62 goals in the yellow and green, having previously been prolific at Villa and not so prolific at West Brom. After playing, he became a coach at Norwich, taking over the managers job when Mike Walker left and got them relegated.
The two of them made a good management team at Town, but were let down by the owner Barry Rubery, particularly in the infamous sale of Marcus Stewart to Ipswich. They should've got us at least into the Play Offs in 2000, but didn't.

Mark Barham was a team mate of theirs in the 1980s. The three of them won the League Cup with the Canaries in 1985. Barham also played twice for England. He signed for us in 1987 and was part of one of our worst seasons ever when we got relegated to Division 3 and played in a certain match at Maine Road.  

Kenny Brown was the son of the Norwich manager, Ken Brown, when they won that League Cup. He made his Canary debut in the season after that. Later on, in 1995, he came on loan to us from West Ham.

Jordan Rhodes played for Norwich in their 2018/19 Championship winning side, on a season long loan from the Wendy. He scored 6 goals. Before that, he scored 87 for us and then 85 for Blackburn. Since leaving Ewood Park, he has only scored 25 times in the next five seasons.

Grant Holt came to us on loan from Wigan in 2014 and scored twice for us. This was towards the back end of his much travelled career. It was at Rochdale that he first made a name for himself, having joined them from Sheff Weds in 2004 he scored 42 goals from 83 appearances for them, which persuaded Nottingham Forest to fork out three hundred grand for him. He dropped to Shrewsbury, but then moved to Norwich, who forked out four hundred grand for him. Norwich were in League One then and despite losing 1-7 at home to Colchester on his debut, they did win the title and he top scored with 30. He totalled 78 for them as well as three Player of the Year awards. He is now a professional wrestler.

Simon Charlton, Huddersfield born, played four seasons for us at left back and what a brilliant left back he was. He was transferred for a quarter of a million quid in 1993 to Premier League Southampton. That was the start of his career. At the back end, having also been at Birmingham and Bolton, he ended up down at Carrow Road, staying there for a couple of years before coming back north to end his career at Oldham.

James Vaughan came on loan to us in 2012 from Premier League Norwich. He'd signed for them in the previous season from Everton, but spent most of his time on the treatment table. He never scored for them but top scored for us in that first season, including one in a victory at Leeds, kicking down the corner flag in front of the Bellend Kop in celebration. He signed on permanently with us in the summer and top scored again. He was getting more and more familiar though with the Town treatment room and was eventually loaned out to Birmingham. Vaughaney started out as the youngest scorer in the Premier League at 16 years and 271 days. He's now 32 and plying his trade at Tranmere, still scoring goals. He scored last week in the League Cup against Harrogate.

Jacob Butterfield was a team mate of Vaughney's at Norwich. Well he would've been but they never played him. They had signed him from Barnsley and only played him in Cup matches before sending him on loan to Bolton and then Crystal Palace. Later on in his career, we signed him from Middlesbrough and he was Player of the Year in his only full season with us. Now aged 30, he is without a club having been released by Luton. A right waste of talent.

Talking of which. Alex Pritchard came to us from Norwich. They paid Spurs 8 million for him and it has been said that the undisclosed sum that we paid Norwich for him was even more than that. To say he has been underwhelming for us would be an understatement. Hopefully playing against his former club will inspire him.

Norwich in popular culture: tis ye olde city be Norwich, being the second largest city in ye olde England as it were. Most of the time though, in popular culture, it's inhabitants are portrayed as six fingered, cousin marrying yokels, with a straw in their gob saying "aaarr!" all the time. True or false, it doesn't help that looking through it's history, the name Colman crops up a lot. The town's most famous product Colman's Mustard, founded by Jeremiah Colman in 1814, the cricketers Geoffrey Colman and Stanley Colman and of course most recently the acting royalty Olivia Colman, were all from the city.

Delia Smith, Ed Balls and Stephen Fry have all been board of directors members at Norwich City over the years, Delia still is of course. But as far as talented people go, I've just picked out two of them with cow poking, cousin marrying connections, Myleene Klass and Cathy Dennis.

Myleene was born in Great Yarmouth in 1978 but was educated at the Notre Dame High School in Norwich. She found fame as a winner on the ITV reality show Popstars in 2001, becoming a member of the group Hear'Say. But that aside and her appearances in lad's mags and such, she really is a talented musician. Here she is trying to play the old Joanna in a wind tunnel.



Cathy, a singer/songwriter, was born in Norwich in 1968 and first had success as vocalist with D Mob, but also had some solo hit records like Touch Me (All Night Long) and a cover version of the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset. However, her big money spinner came thanks to a small but perfectly formed Aussie. No not Aaron Mooy. Kylie Minogue. Cathy wrote this little ditty for her that went to number 1 everywhere in the world, apart from America, where it peaked at no 7. Can't please everybody.



The most famous Norwich resident though has to be the radio and tv personality, Alan Partridge. He first rose to fame as a sports reporter on Radio 4, but soon progressed to having his own chat show, Knowing Me Knowing You, which was so successful on the radio that it was commissioned for BBC1. And despite it's popularity, a change at the top of BBC Head of Entertainment meant that unfortunately Partridge didn't get a second series and somehow ended up working the graveyard shift on Radio Norwich and living in the Linton Travel Tavern, just off the A11.

This show became so popular that soon he was moved to a more audience receptive evening slot and had moved from the travel tavern to a static caravan, had his autobiography published and landed the prestigious presenting job on UK Conquest's military based quiz show.

He later moved back to radio and the new digital radio station North Norfolk Digital, where he presented Mid Morning Matters. Partridge was caught up in a hostage situation in 2013 when, following the takeover of North Norfolk Digital by a multinational conglomerate, his fellow DJ, Pat Farrell was sacked. Farrell didn't take the news well and ended up in the studio with a shotgun, holding the staff hostage. Partridge was sent in as negotiator and following a series of mishaps, the siege moved via a bus ride to Cromer Pier for a face off with the police. Partridge was hit in the leg in the ensuing panic but ended up the hero and his mid morning show was secured.

He now presents the topical current affairs programme This Time with Alan Partridge every night of the week on BBC1.





Talking of naff TV programmes. Anglia TV was based in Norwich. Do you remember this teatime classic?

And now from Norwich...……



Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Watford v Middlesbrough

Saturday:
Birmingham City v Brentford (12:30)
Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United (12:30)
Barnsley v Luton Town
AFC Bournemouth v Blackburn Rovers
Bristol City v Coventry City
Cardiff City v Sheffield Wednesday
Derby County v Reading
Millwall v Stoke City
Preston North End v Swansea City
Queens Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest


Pre Season:
Friendlies:
Town 2-1 Bradford City
Town 3-3 Man Utd u23's

Norwich 6-0 MK Dons
SC Verl 0-3 Norwich
Dynamo Dresden 0-2 Norwich
Darmstadt 98 2-3 Norwich
Darmstadt 98 0-0 Norwich

EFL Cup:
Town 0-1 Rochdale
Luton 3-1 Norwich


September the 12th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

Well the 12th of September 1908 is the day that Huddersfield Town registered their first ever win and their first ever goal in match number 2 of our first season. It was played in the North Eastern League and following our 0-2 defeat at South Shields in the opening game, our brave lads once more travelled north, to the other coast this time and a trip to Workington. Richard Morris is credited with our first goal as we won 2-0.
Known as Dickie, he was a Welsh international at the back end of his career and had left by the time we were elected into the Football League. He was a former soldier who had served in the Boer War and at the end of the conflict left the Army to start his football career. He didn't start at the bottom. After a short stint with his home town club, Newtown in mid Wales, he signed on with the league champions Liverpool. A tricky inside forward, he had three years on Merseyside, scoring twice in the derby match at Anfield, before leaving for the West Riding of Yorkshire and signing for Leeds City. He later went to Grimsby Town, Plymouth Argyle and Reading before heading back to the West Riding and signing for newly formed Huddersfield Town. He played ten times for us, scoring 4 goals.

During the 2nd world war, Town played in the Northern Wartime League and had various guest players turn out in the blue n white. One of them was a young wireless operator, who was the only survivor when the bomber he was in crashed. That was in 1939 and by 1941 he had overcome his injuries and signed for Blackpool. On one occasion, on September the 12th 1942, he played for Huddersfield Town in a match at Leeds Road against Newcastle as a guest player and scored twice. His name was Stan Mortensen and would go on to achieve fame scoring a hat trick for Blackpool in the 1953 FA Cup Final, the one that became known as the Matthews final. He scored 197 goals for Blackpool and now has a statue outside the ground at Bloomfield Road.

September the 12th 1967 saw the start of our best ever run in the League Cup. Wolves had just won promotion back to the First Division, but we beat them 1-0 at Leeds Road in a campaign that would see us reach the semi finals, where we were beaten on aggregate by Arsenal.

1908: Workington (a) NEL, WON 2-0 (Richard Morris, Harry Wallace)
1914: Nottingham Forest (h) Div 2, WON 4-0 (Billy Smith 2, Ernie Islip, Joe Jee)
1925: Cardiff City (h) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Clem Stephenson)
1931: West Ham Utd (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (Dennis Jennings, George McLean, Dave Mangnall)
1936: Brentford (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Alf Lythgoe)
1942: Newcastle Utd (h) Wartime League North, WON 4-0 (Stan Mortensen 2, Billy Price 2)
1945: Bradford Park Avenue (a) Football League North, drew 2-2 (Danskin og, Jimmy Glazzard)
1953: Chelsea (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (Willie Davie, Jimmy Glazzard, Jimmy Watson)
1959: Lincoln City (a) Div 2, WON 2-0 (Les Massie 2)
1961: Carlisle Utd (a) League Cup rd 1, drew 1-1 (Les Massie)
1962: Norwich City (h) Div 2, drew 0-0
1967: Wolves (h) League Cup rd 2, WON 1-0 (Colin Dobson)
1970: Crystal Palace (h) Div 1, lost 0-2
1978: Bournemouth (a) Div 4, lost 0-2
1981: Wimbledon (h) Div 3, drew 1-1 (Peter Fletcher)
1987: Blackburn Rovers (a) Div 2, drew 2-2 (Andy May, Graham Cooper)
1992: Brighton (a) Div Two (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Iwan Roberts)
1995: Barnsley (h) Div One (2nd tier), WON 3-0 (Ronnie Jepson, Simon Collins, Andy Booth)
2000: Wimbledon (h) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-2
2006: Doncaster Rovers (h) League One (tier 3) drew 0-0
2009: Brentford (h) League One (tier 3), drew 0-0
2015: Cardiff City (a) Championship, lost 0-2

Well Sept 12 started out as a good date in our history, unbeaten until 1970. But since then, not so good. We haven't even scored since 1995.  

[themaclad]

Kin ell Snoots how many weeks did it take you to prepare that, kick a few we've got them next week

[Lord Snooty]

Kin ell Snoots how many weeks did it take you to prepare that, kick a few we've got them next week

Still furloughed.  

[WakeyTerrier]

Dreading the game this weekend, Norwich have invested in the team where as we haven't really.

I've got my ifollow code and i'm all ready to watch it from behind the sofa.

[Lord Snooty]

Yeah but we spent an absolute fortune when we came down. Most of the players they've brought in are kids.

[WakeyTerrier]

Ben Gibson- Defender
Keiran Dowell-Midfield
Jordan Hugill- Forward

That's three very good signings to start with.
On top of that they still have the majority of the players that got them to the PL in the first place, that and the fact they have never changed the way they play.

What have we got?
Hamer or Poppadom Hands in goal

aging centre back pairing with little or no pace.

A midfield that probably starts with the mighty midget Pritchard, what a waste of money.

Danny Ward up top, not that the ball will get to him much

Jobs f**ked!

[Lord Snooty]

Yes I know. I was more having a go at how we wasted our money last year.

[theo_luddite]

Last year our spend was a drop in t'ocean compared to the season afore when we blew our brains out on complete and utter wastes of space. Hope they are reading because few of 'em are still here, wasting wages as well as oxygen while pretending to be footballers.

My sofa is up against the wall so no hiding place for me Wakey. Unless I go out and mingle with Wolverhampton's finest Covid spreading yoof before we all go back into mini lock-down on Monday.

Erm, yeh - War and Peace is like an edition of Private Eye compared to that effort Snoots . whoever gets the away game can snaffle half of that and only you will be aware of the plagiarism.

My reckoning is they were lauded in the Prima Donna League last season from:
A) - being there before in the Premier Shits era
B) - beating the Blue Mancs early doors at Canary World - they lived off that result all season
C) - Deliah's floury baps being handed round in hospitality, before, during half-time and after the match. Never underestimate the feel of a nice handful of soft warm baps and a bowl of hot Norfolk turkey & veg soup on someone's perception of your club on a cold, wet Wednesday in Norfolk.

They've spent a bit this season on the back of selling a few for a few bob more than we've managed to so far (last season and this).

It will come back to haunt me but compared to his last season at Both Ends, which I think was in League 1, Hugill hasn't so far been as prolific in this Division while on loan from the 'ammers at Boro and QPR. themaclad will likely correct me if I'm wrong.

It's all square in games between us and wouldn't be surprised if it still is come 17:05 on Saturday, however we should be doing our level best to kick them while they are down and even risk Grant if the Baggies haven't got their cheque book out by Saturday morning. No bugger gave us any sympathy for having a despondent squad and an inept German Coach last season. Their coach doesn't seem as inept as ours was but they've still got a losing mentality.

[theo_luddite]

One other thing Snoots - when was that pic of The Cowshed End taken?

I'm trying to work out if I was still in there, stood just this side of the onion bag/pillar nearest to it (at least 3/4 of the way to the back) or if I'd migrated out to The Terrace somewhere close to the 18yd line at this end by then?

Stood either way amongst a bunch of Woodbine and Capstan Full Strength (with no filter tips) smokers by then. Plus a few roll me owns. Never smoked anything first hand in my life. How the fook I've survived some of the 2nd hand stuff they and others have smoked around me is beyond me.

I used to laugh at them when they all said here comes the shit from ICI at half time when it was all their own smoke billowing out from under the Terrace roof.

[Lord Snooty]

From the shirts worn in there, looks like Pulse sponsored, I'd imagine it's from the Final Whistle match against Blackpool.

I probably helped give you some second hand smoke then, theo. I used to smoke Woodbines. Don't know why. Rather a stupid thing to do really.