Helen Southgate

It’s been a while since I have blogged, so long that in fact since my last blog Norwich City FC got promoted to the Premier League in a fantastic season which I shall remember for the rest of my life.  I unfortunately didn’t get tickets to the game we got promoted at but I shall never forget the celebrations in The Old Red Lion in Islington, crowded to the rafters with Norwich City Fans jumping up and down!

Well, it is now 13th December and we are nearly half way into the season and we are sitting in 10th place, yes that is right, little Norwich are sitting 10th in the English Premier League, who would have thought it?!

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to a few away games too, Wigan to kick off the season, Chelsea, Old Trafford and most recently Manchester City,  the latter was somewhere I was really looking forward to visiting.  Before the game, we knew we would get beaten but in football there is always that glimmer of hope for the underdog and that is why it is such a beautiful and addictive game.  Their team however cost a few more quid than ours, in fact just one Manchester City player is worth more than our entire team put together, probably several times over.  It really is the battle of David and Goliath.

We got beaten 5-1, expected, perhaps a little disappointing but wow, what a team City are, we had no chance really.  However, I really enjoyed my trip there despite the loss. The Citeh fans lived up to their reputation of being a loud and inventive bunch of supporters and the banter crossing between the two sides was actually very fun, I’ve not experienced that in quite a while.  Their chants of “we’ll score when we want” were matched by us singing the same back to them when we nicked a goal back and we also did the Poznan which was much fun and poked a bit of fun at them.  They do the Poznan after every goal, yes, every goal, after the 5th time it becomes a little weary, but I did enjoy our celebration and so did the Citeh fans.  Their blogs were full of comments saying that we were the best fans to visit Man City so far, and we were, even after the 5th goal went in we stayed, we sang, we laughed.  This is our dream season and we’re enjoying it ….. and guess what, I think we’ll stay up!

Next stop – Everton away.

Ok, so Cardiff City owe Motherwell 175k and used to be in several millions of pounds of debt so the news that the infamous premier league star Craig Bellamy had moved their on loan last week would have come as a shock to many.

Being a Norwich fan, I have a soft spot for Bella’s , and being a fan of a club trying to make it to the big time again I can identify with the feeling of elation that the Cardiff fan’s must have that their prodigal son has returned to play at their club.

However, how can this be fair to all the other clubs trying to keep their heads above water and run a football club that will not go under, a very hard feat for any club outside of the top 5 these days it seems.  How is this in anyway a level playing field that a club should be allowed to spend an undisclosed figure on his wages (that we all assume is pretty hefty, it is Bellamy) when they have outstanding debts?

I guess you have to speculate to accumulate, but is one player really worth that risk?  Can one player really save a club in the long run?  I think the temptation is that getting into the premier league, with the huge £80 mil odd payout has perhaps become the only way some clubs see to survive so they risk everything to get there.

I like to think that I wouldn’t be impressed if Norwich did this, and I’d like to think that I’d realise that one player a football club does not make, however, I’m a fickle football fan and I’d probably love it as much as the Cardiff fans do right now.

What a week for Norwich City FC, probably the best week we have ever had in terms of goal scoring, certainly the best in my lifetime of supporting Norwich. I missed the game against Leyton Orient on Tuesday as couldn’t get there in time from West London but it sounded like a good game against a fairly decent league one side.

I did make it to the game yesterday however against third in the table Bristol Rovers.  This is the first game I have seen in a long time where we completely dominated the game from start to finish and managed to get a few goals out of it too (well 5 to be precise).  There were great performances all over the pitch, Wes Hoolahan, who I have often been critical of, mastered the midfield along with Daryl Russell who I again thought was outstanding and glad to see him around still.  The defence didn’t have a lot to do but Doherty and Askou looked comfortable and I thought Mickey Spillane had a brilliant game at right back, hope the injury does not keep him out.

Now, to the man of the match, Mr Grant Holt who is fast becoming a legend at Norwich.  I was debating with my dad before the game whether he was better than Iwan Roberts, I said no, my dad said yes.  After yesterday’s game I’m wondering how this guy has been overlooked in the lower leagues for the past few years.  He has a lot to his game apart from just being big and strong.  He holds the ball up well, he passes well, he reads the game well, he comes back to defend and he can score goals.  This man is a league one football genius! But perhaps I should keep quiet as we don’t want someone else getting hold of him. Yes, I know this is league one and the level of football is different but so far I think this man has been the key to our current success and long may it continue.

Score: Norwich City 5 Bristol Rovers 1

Scorers for Norwich: Martin (9), Hoolahan (31) pen, Holt (33) (40), Cureton (90)

Scorers for Bristol Rovers: Hughes (26) pen

A few facts about Bristol Rovers (or Brissle Rovers)

- they have two nicknames, The Pirates and The Gasheads.  The later was a derogatory term given to them by their fierce rivals Bristol City as apparently the smell of gas from the nearby gas works used to waft over onto the pitch.  The Rovers fans have now taken this to be their nickname.

- Their away strip is green and yellow

You can check out their ground for the return leg here. http://www.awaygrounds.com/bristol-rovers-memorial-stadium/

I am what I think is a typical Norwich fan, ever the optimist, modest in defeat and always certain that we will do well.  In recent years it has been tougher to think like this as I have seen my club drop from the heights of the Premier League to where we are now, mid table in league one.

At the end of last season I took defeat gracefully and accepted our relegation from the championship.  Even when Bryan Gunn was appointed I thought it was a wrong decision but I stood by my club and let them keep my rebate.  Up until Saturday I regretted this and was starting to lose motivation.  I have to travel from London for every home game and being witness to the 7-1 defeat, missing the Wycombe game, being put through the boredom of the Walsall game and then travelling to MK Dons for another disappointing TV performance, on travelling to the game against Charlton on Saturday I was feeling less of an optimist.

However, the game on Saturday completely restored my passion and faith.  It was back to the type of football we like to see, albeit still a class or two below where we would like to be but it was a game where we passed the ball around and looked exciting upfront.  Most pleasing of all however was the way we came back from 2-0 down and could very nearly have won the game, and would have deserved to.  The team fought hard and never gave up – that is the Norwich team I want to see.  Some players were outstanding as well, Korey Smith, Darel Russell and the man I bought with my rebate, Grant Holt.  It was worth that £80 rebate in the end, bring on Gillingham.