NCISA

I am posting on behalf of NCISA as there has been some comment on here regarding the role of the association in the current turmoil at the club, and indeed in some of the events of the past two years. To answer the question by Mr Carrow, yes NCISA is constantly in touch with the Norwich City Board regarding all manner of things Norwich City. This includes the current concern regarding the teams performance so far this season. As a supporters organisation we are in a position to have dialogue with the club on a regular basis but I would point out this is by no means restricted to us. With the advent of modern technology it is easy for all fans to directly question officials at the football club as many of you have done. Those of you who have done will know that the chief executive Neil Doncaster is receptive to your opinions and almost always responds to emails.As an association we try to gauge opinion particular at difficult times like the present. This isnt always easy. A glance at this message board reveals that there are many differing views regarding what is best for the club right now and it is a similar picture within our membership, on the terraces and also up till recently within our own committee.  At the height of the Worthington crisis I was receiving a mixture of emails telling me either that NCISA wasnt active enough in getting rid of the manager, or that we were disloyal and anticlub. Those of you who read this message board regularly will know that certain individuals still accuse us of the latter while there are always those, as in this thread, who accuse us of being in bed with the football club. It is quite frankly a no win situation. You cannot please all of the people all of the time. Our solution to this conundrum is to try to provide a platform for reasoned debate about what is going on. We did just that during the Worthington debate by organising a fans meeting at St Andrews Hall which was attended by over 500 people.Long before the disappointing results and performances of the last two weeks we were in the process of organising a question and answer session with Peter Grant and Jim Duffy which will be open to all fans including those of you who post on here. I invite you to emerge from behind your masks of anonymity to confront the manager face to face with your concerns?Having listened to various view points this week, NCISA believes at present, just 7 games into a 46 game season it is far too early for knee jerk reactions, demonstrations and calls for the managers head. We dont not feel that if Peter Grant did leave, his replacement would do much better under the current financial restrictions. And, who would it be? What is plan B? Martin Allen, Neil Warnock are names I have heard mentioned. The former is thought to have potential; but has had only limited success at  Brentford and M K Dons. And as for Neil Warnock, well every time he visits Carrow Road he is met with a barrage of bile and vitriol. Hardly the ideal background for a new manager. This view I can assure you is nothing to do with us being ''cosy'' with the football club. I feel certain if you ask Neil Doncaster, he will tell you that he has had a less than cosy relationship with members of the NCISA committee including myself over the past three or four years.I realise that City fans are not concerned with what happens at other clubs, but a glance at the Championship table tells you that we are not the only under achievers in this division. Cardiff have spent an arm and a leg on Fowler and Hasseilbank. Leicester signed 12 players and Sheff Utd have spent £4.5 million on Jams Beattie and £2.5 million on Billy Sharp. None of these teams are exactly setting the division alight either.The season is barely eight weeks old and we feel at this stage of the season that the right thing to do is back Petrer Grant and his backroom staff. I am acutely aware that this post is not what a lot of you want to hear but be assured however that if things do not improve and we find ourselves, say, in the bottom six by Christmas, that NCISA may change its stance. At the end of the day, if we are right to keep our powder dry right now, then we wont be smug and say I told you so. If we are wrong however we will be the first to admit it and be humble enough to accept the ensuing criticism.We want success for this football club as much as the rest of the fans. Kathy BlakeSecretaryNCISA

For those of you mildly interested in the affairs of NCISA (and for those of you completely obsessed!) we have released the following statement: NCISA wishes to congratulate our chairman Roy Blower on his appointment as Lord Mayor of the City of Norwich which takes effect from Tuesday 22nd May 2007. As a result of heavy official commitments, Roy has decided to step down as chairman of NCISA. The committee has voted that the current treasurer, John Tilson, will become acting chairman and Clare Williamson (membership secretary) will become acting treasurer until the association''s AGM later this year.   Thanks!

NCISA are pleased to announce that they have secured a ''question the board forum'' that will feature both Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones. For more information please see our web-site www.ncisa.co.uk

There is now a short statement regarding club sponsorship on our web-site. Many Thanks

Firstly please allow us to make one thing clear. We are not happy with the current situation regarding the continued retention of Nigel Worthington as manager. We made our stance clear in December 2005 and have not wavered from that.   The front page of the website that seems to have caused so much response from posters on this site is taken completely out of context. On Thursday the situation was considerably different to that after the Burnley game, and had we come away with the three points I’m sure that people would not have complained at its content. Instead fans would be looking forward to hammering Leicester and closing the gap even further with a big eye on 6th spot. Of course, now is a very different story after another spineless away performance that embarrassed us on national TV. However, to get upset about to the point of sending abusive mails to Kathy is quite frankly very disappointing. (Although I must add it was not via this board and may be from people that do not use this board)   A new front page is currently being written and will be on the site to reflect the Burnley catastrophe. Please understand that even though we make efforts to keep the site as updated as we can, there will be times when something is a little out of date.   It was back in October that as a committee we decided that Nigel Worthington should be replaced and we made a formal statement in December which was sniped at by supporters and the club alike. As things turned from bad to worse we organised the public meeting, again we suffered criticisms from the club, some media and supporters.   You only have to read some of the posts on this site to see the diversity of opinions and we are in a position where we cannot please everybody. We can assure you that we still remain against the retention of Nigel Worthington and we are doing everything we can to put this view forward to the club and will continue to do so.    

city angel there are two ways to view the report 1) Click on the red title "Meeting with NCFC" 2) Select "Protests" from the menu then "Meeting with NCFC" As the site is not written in html there is no direct link to the story Many thanks

on last nights meeting now available at www.ncisa.co.uk Many thanks

Having been at the meeting last night I may be able to help you all with this. A fellow member said that from talking to protesters, he believed that the thought of NW being in charge next season had swelled the numbers of those against NW and some had joined protests with this in mind. The club said that any notion of being allowed a fixed period of time was something that the club wouldnt do...what if the club lost the first three games 6-0, or 4-0, would then not be the right time? Also the club will look at performances as well as results and league position amongst other things, including injuries. It is a process that is constantly under review and not something that can have a fixed criteria and timeframe. Incidentally, the report will be on the website, www.ncisa.co.uk shortly. I hope this information helps you on this thread in some way.

We are aware that there is a lot of interest in the outcome of this meeting, and with the help of Kathy, we will offer as much information as we can via our website, www.ncisa.co.uk Many Thanks

Just a quick post to advise all that the highly popular NCISA quiz will be on the 16th March 2006. More details available from www.ncisa.co.uk.

NCISA''s comment on the St Andrew''s Hall public meeting is now available at www.ncisa.co.uk Many Thanks

ncfc0405 Although the technology exists to be able to record the meeting we have technical issues that would prohibit this from being available on the web. For a start MP3 files are massive when you are looking at 2hours worth of recording - to keep costs to a minimum our website would probably only hold about 20MB - about 20 mins of audio. The cost of increasing this is too much to be considered. We are also in a position where the site would in all probability crash if too many people downloaded the audio and we would have to wait until April before anyone could access the site again (due to a limit on downloadable information set by the host.) We will continue to explore all avenues and do the best job we can, but please remember that we are citizen journalists not the real deal! Many thanks

The local press have been advised and we will update our website, www.ncisa.co.uk with any new information. There will also be intermittant reminders on message boards.

Norwich City Independent Supporters Association will be holding a public meeting at St Andrew''s Hall to discuss the current situation at the football club. NCISA chairman Roy Blower said "This gives the fans the opportunity to let the association and the football club know their views on the current situation". The meeting will be held on Thursday March 2nd 2006 and start at 7.30 pm . All welcome. Further details from Roy on 01603 452557 or 07717 104426.