Who Are Ya? | Ten Things You Didn't Know About...Norwich City

Perhaps famed nowadays for bouncing up and down between the Premier League and the Championship, Norwich City are a club with a rich history and truly are a ‘proper’ football club. Now in England’s second tier and set for another season in the Championship, we take a look at ten facts you may not know about the Canaries.

1-      Formed in 1902, Norwich City were founded in a café in the city and entered the amateur game, playing their first match against Harwich & Parkeston at their first ground Newmarket Road on September 2^nd 1902.

2-      Although the majority of clubs have a number of different kit colours and design before settling on what’s known as the ‘traditional’ strip, Norwich have worn their famed yellow and green since 1907. Their first colours worn were a white and blue half and half shirt with navy shorts and socks in 1903, before switching to white shorts and black socks. The first time yellow was used was when the chairman, who was a keen keeper of canaries, changed to the colours of today. He also changed their nickname of the Citizens to the popular Canaries.

3-      Although known to have been formed in 1902, following the First World War between 1914 and 1918, football in England was suspended leaving Norwich in massive debts. In 1917 the club went into voluntary liquidation, before being re-formed in 1919 after the great war ended.

4-      Norwich play their football at Carrow Road, which they moved to in 1935 from their second home ‘The Nest’. The first match was played against West Ham United which the home side won 4-3. In the early periods there was much excitement with King George the VI visiting to take in a match.

5-      Remarkably, Norwich City are the only English club to have ever beaten Bayern Munich in Europe at the Olympic Stadium. They played in Europe just once in the 1993/94 season, having finished 3^rd in the Premier League. They were denied entry to the UEFA Cup in 1986 due to the Heysel Stadium Disaster.

6-      Following a League Cup Final win over Sunderland in 1985, every time the two sides meet each other they compete for the ‘Friendship Trophy’. This was due to the camaraderie between fans at Wembley during the Final. They also played each other in the 1992 FA Cup Semi-Final, where Sunderland won before they were beaten in the Final by Liverpool.

7-      Norwich has been frequent throughout popular culture, with the city and the club receiving a lot of attention. The hugely popular Mike Bassett: England Manager film saw the fictional coach given the England job as a result of his success with the Canaries. But perhaps the most famous face to come out of the city belongs to another man, again fictional, in the form of Alan Partridge. However, we believe that Alan is more interested in the pedestrianisation of Nowrich City centre and allowing access to Dixon’s than the going’s on at Carrow Road, a-ha!

8-       Let’s be having you! It doesn’t matter who you support or what generation of footballers you grew up with. Delia Smith’s harrowing cry in 2005 to the Norwich City fans at half-time during her stint as a director has gone down forever as one of the greatest Premier League moments. The TV chef was seething and went on a rant at the Norwich supporters when the match was tied at 2-2 against Manchester City. It did end up blowing back in her face, Norwich lost the game thanks to a 90^th minute Robbie Fowler goal, and they were relegated from the division soon after.

9-      Norwich have had a number of famous faces through the doors at Carrow Road. England World Cup winner Martin Peters turned out for the side over 200 times in five years with the club, former Manchester United centre-back Steve Bruce played over a century of games for the Canaries before signing for the Red Devils as well as former Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Celtic and England forward Chris Sutton, who began his senior career with City.

10-   Club Records: Norwich’s record appearance maker is Kevin Keelan who played 673 first-team matches for the club, whilst the record goal scorer is Johnny Gavin with 122. The clubs biggest ever win was 10-2, beating Coventry City in 1930, whilst the biggest loss came 22 years beforehand to Swindon Town, also 10-2. The highest ever attendance at Carrow Road is 43,984 for their FA Cup Quarter-Final against Leicester City. In terms of transfers, the highest fee received was £10,000,000 for Nathan Redmond to Southampton, and they payed £8,500,000 for Ricky van Wolfswinkel from Sporting Lisbon.

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