Gary Hooper celebrates scoring City’s first goal
Pre-match
The usual boring stuff happened. Leaving the flat at about quarter to eleven, I boarded the train to Wolverhampton, changing for Smethwick Galton Bridge. I was incredibly pessimistic. Norwich had lost six of their seven away games and I was expecting to see another bad day at the office for my beloved Canaries here. On arrival in Smethwick, I had little idea of what was to happen next.
The walk to the pub took about 15 minutes and I’d already started drinking before my mates (Aaron and James) had arrived. The pub (The Vine) was absolutely packed with Norwich fans. It’s rather surprising that, despite the poor results, so many people have stuck with them. I was drinking Banks’s smooth, which was a rather nice pint for £2.80. When my mates arrived, I was already on pints two and three. We’d all decided that we were going to be negative about today and expect another disappointing trip away from Carrow Road. Even the alcohol couldn’t lift our spirits.
We then began talking about the biggest talking point as Norwich fans over recent weeks and months – Chris Hughton. My friends were both adamant that Hughton should leave and I can understand their frustrations with the former Birmingham City manager, especially given that Norwich spent big during the summer. However, I think that he’s slowly getting there with this team and that he’s been massively unlucky with injuries. Hughton’s been unable to partner his two biggest summer signings up front – Hooper and van Wolfswinkel – and only had one fit senior winger available for today’s game. The no-shows away from home are unacceptable, but Hughton’s home record over the course of his year and a half in charge is very good. He’s overseen 11 wins, 9 draws and 6 defeats at Carrow Road in the league and, when you’re managing a club like us, that’s making a home a fortress.
Having finished the discussion (and our drinks), we headed towards the ground. There was one problem – I mistimed my seal breakage. It was a complete nightmare. To make matters worse, Aaron and James decided to stop at a burger van to prolong the pain. Desperately holding onto my Johnson all the way to The Hawthorns, I just about made it through the turnstiles and was finally able to unleash the tidal wave.
At the ground
After that drama, I got to my seat – one row from the front – which was hardly ideal seeing that I was trying to catch hold of everything that was going on and report it on here. I’ve been to the Hawthorns four times now and this has to be the worst view that I’ve had. My attentions then turned towards hoping and praying that I could continue my personal 100% record at Norwich games this season. I wasn’t too confident having looked at the team sheet – Leroy Fer was playing out on the left and Johan Elmander (who is yet to convince me in a Norwich shirt) was starting up top alongside Gary Hooper.
The teams came out and my nerves continued to build – expecting a hiding. The match started with West Brom in control of the majority of the possession and the tempo of the game; much as I had anticipated.
However, in the thirteenth minute, there was delirium from the 2500-odd Norwich fans that had made the 400-mile round trip from Norfolk. With seemingly very little danger imminent for West Brom, Leroy Fer’s intricate pass found the dynamic run of Hooper and he produced an absolutely world class, first-time finish from just outside the box, low to Boaz Myhill’s right. That made it 1-0 to City and gave them their first meaningful away goal in just shy of two months.
West Brom then responded relatively strongly and gave Norwich ‘keeper John Ruddy a lot of work for his eventual clean sheet bonus. Yussuf Mulumbu fired straight at Ruddy having worked a nice move with Morgan Amalfitano. Then, Victor Anichebe forced the England international ‘keeper to turn the ball behind for a corner with a shot from the edge of the box but the best was still to come from Ruddy.
Norwich had made it to half-time unscathed and it was a very good half for Chris Hughton’s men. The Canaries had made one chance for Gary Hooper and he finished with aplomb. At the other end, City were limiting the opposition to few chances. It forced Baggies manager Steve Clarke to make two changes – introducing Saido Berahino and Shane Long in place of Morgan Amalfitano and Liam Ridgewell.
After half time, The Baggies had their biggest chance to get back into the game. After a Nathan Redmond tackle unluckily fell to Stephane Sessegnon, he was clear had the whole of the goal to aim at but the former Sunderland man somehow contrived to miss the goal completely. From where I was sitting, it only looked a matter of time before we caved in and let West Brom back into the game. Shane Long’s header that called Ruddy into action once more with about 5 minutes to go sent my heart into my mouth as Ruddy pulled off a top save to scramble across to his left.
At this point, I started to believe that we could hold on. It was far from a classic display but we’d defended like heroes. Almost every West Brom delivery was met by a Norwich head. Then, in the 89th minute, we finished the game as a contest. After Nathan Redmond had taken two West Brom players out of the game to find Leroy Fer, the Dutch international cut inside and fired low to Myhill’s right to double the advantage and to send the away end into raptures once more. A perfect end to a very satisfying defensive performance and it was nothing less than I thought we had deserved for putting in a good team performance for the full 90 minutes. As the goal went in, you could hear the folding up of seats from the vast majority of the ground as fans left in disgust: a very satisfying sight as an away fan.
Post-Match
The final whistle blows and the lads are applauded off – nothing less than they deserve considering their efforts today. Given time to reflect on that result, it’s possibly Chris Hughton’s biggest result of the season. On the concourse, I met with Aaron and James again as we tried to reflect what had just happened. “How shit must you be, we’re winning away?!” was the cry from the 2500 Norwich fans, possibly in disbelief of what they’d just seen. On leaving the ground, we were jubilantly singing as we walked down the street – although my attempts to start singing “Leigh Griffiths is Wolves’ number 9” were wisely stopped by my mates!
It was a magnificent day and was made even better by the McDonald’s. My usual double cheeseburgers had never tasted so good. The beer belly has developed quite a bit since I’ve started at University, and today wasn’t going to help. Did I care? Not in the slightest. Aaron and James, however, were still in the “Hughton Out” camp. I can’t understand why you would be after a display like that and seeing how we’ve got a squad that’s looking a little threadbare at the moment yet we have three wins in five games. I understand that the manner of the win over Crystal Palace in particular wasn’t the most convincing but Hughton is getting results. Whatever he’s doing, it is working.
After leaving McDonald’s, we carried on our sing-song as we walked towards the station. The banter with the locals happened and the abuse from one platform to another was relentless until me and Aaron realised that we were supposed to be on the other platform, at which point we kept our mouths firmly shut!
As the much-delayed trains to Smethwick Galton Bridge and then Wolverhampton arrived, we were crammed into the tiniest of spaces with barely any breathing room. Delays had meant that we were also able to get the earlier train to Manchester Piccardilly. Having to stand yet again, the first part of the journey was unbearable. Then, much to my surprise, I heard some random fucker yelling “TIM!” as we stopped in Stafford – that random fucker happened to be Nick who had gone to watch a much more glamorous game as Carlton Town lost 2-0 to Bedworth United. The journey was complete as I arrived in the ever-gorgeous city of Stoke-on-Trent… a great away day was over and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
Under The Floodlights 