Ah the great British summer. Great for holidays, BBQs, trips to the beach, long light evenings spent in the garden (yours or a pub’s) it’s great isn’t it? No, no it isn’t. The summer is rubbish really isn’t it? Why? Because there’s no football. No weekly fix of The Norwich. Yes, yes every couple of years there’s the World Cup or The European Championships but it’s not the same. Partly because both competitions have lost a bit of their lustre as they bent over for commercialism and partly because England will stink them out and you’ll realise from the way that makes you feel about England and its overpaid ‘stars’ just how much you love and miss The Norwich.
Those long, drawn out summer months with only the occasional snippet of The Norwich related news. The excitement of new signings, a new kit being revealed maybe (perhaps accompanied by a funny video which you watch over, and over and over again), loved or disliked players departing, the season review DVD coming out (which you view over, and over and over again), the fixtures coming out (which you peruse over, and over and over again) although this makes the longing for the season to begin even worse. This seems especially true this year after a season like we’ve just had and with the prospect of playing in ‘The Best League In The World™’ to come.
Then the players report back for training, the first pre-season friendly game comes up. You’ve sworn you’ll never go to another pre-season friendly but you’ve missed it all so much you go to the marquee friendly atCarrow Road, and again regret it and swear you won’t do it again, it’s a poor substitute for the real thing as the atmosphere just isn’t the same.
Then eventually, finally, after what seems like an eternity, crack out the lucky pants (lime green boxer shorts if you’re asking). It arrives. The first day of the season, which may or may not coincide with what I love the most and what will be most familiar to most City fans, the first home game of the season.
It’s like Christmas morning when you were a kid again, the excitement is growing, you have butterflies in your stomach as you rush to get all your jobs done in the morning then click right back into your match-day routine like you’ve never been away. Your little superstitions, your route to the ground, where you meet your mates for a drink beforehand, what time you get to Carrow Road. It’s like the summer never happened.
For the first home game of the season the sun always seems to shine, this may be a trick of the memory but go with it. The walk through riverside and the massed ranks of the Yellow Army resplendent in the August sunshine. Everyone having a few beers in the sun and catching up with friends on the summer news, who we’ve signed, how many games we can win, whether we can we stay up/get promoted. The buzz around the city is palpable.
Then into the ground. The sun glinting off the yellow shirts in the besunglassed lower Barclay, oh how our colours look fantastic on days like this. You chat to the people who sit around you that you haven’t seen for 3 months and have the same conversations you’ve already had with your mates about the prospects for the season. You see the team warming up, they all look tanned, lithe and raring to go. The old heroes you instantly recognise from any angle, the new signings warming up that you’d previously only read about, seen on TV/t’internet or in another team’s shirt and how they look incongruous in the yellow and green at first. Then the players disappear back into the changing rooms and the wait is almost over.
Then it’s here, the instant the season officially starts, that moment when the team comes out in line, the crowd roars, balloons are released, beach balls are sent aloft, torn up paper is thrown into the air around the ground and we’re back. God I’ve missed you, how did I get through without you, I love you.
The game itself is often a massive let down or non-event (with the odd exception) but it doesn’t matter. It’s back. We’re back. The Norwich are back.
I for one can’t wait. See you there.
Guest Columnist
Little Norwich 