Mike Walker Interview

[Splendid Rush 8]

Hi all. 
 

The Pink Un kindly hosted the first episode of the Splendid Rush podcast in which I went out to Cyprus to interview Mike Walker. 
 

if you’re interested to give it a listen, you can do so here:

 

 

Cheers,

SR

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

Don't skip it.

[Google Bot 3,995]

Oh this looks a potentially great series, I did see it come up on the youtube feed but didn't realise it was a third party doing the interview/podcast.

Going to take a listen in bed tonight, nice one!

[lake district canary 4,878]

Yeah, that was really good. Cheers SR.

[Yonderlyeller 67]

Excellent. A good talker prompted by an interviewer who is a good listener. That's how it's done.

[TIL 1010 5,303]

32 minutes ago, Yonderlyeller said:

Excellent. A good talker prompted by an interviewer who is a good listener. That's how it's done.

You mean like Chris Reeve ? 🤣

[Satriales 1,051]

Chris Sutton and Ruel Fox out on the lash 🤣 

[duke63 758]

Even now its still hard to appreciate that we could have finished up the best team in the whole of England that season. Better than ManUre, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. I had mates who were United supporters who couldn't believe we were 8 points clear at the top at Christmas. I barely believed it myself.

A little bit of investment in the squad that first winter and it may well have happened.

[Fosterslager88 22]

I really enjoyed the episode and hope it becomes a regular occurrence, so many club legends they could do episodes with.

I remember when we beat villa and was convinced that night it was going to be our year, maybe some investment might have helped but looking back now I think I agree with Walker that Man Utd were just too strong and felt inevitable.

On a different note, does anyone know where a download or dvd of that 92/93 season review can be found!?

[Capt. Pants 5,152]

Absolute bonkers days. Hard to believe 2 seasons later we were relegated!

[Olano 111]

Great man and a great manager!!!

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

2 hours ago, Fosterslager88 said:

I remember when we beat villa and was convinced that night it was going to be our year, maybe some investment might have helped but looking back now I think I agree with Walker that Man Utd were just too strong and felt inevitable.

I remember someone being interviewed around that time (think it was John Deehan), and him saying words to the effect of 'Man Utd have to win it. For us, it would be nice to win it.'

I was only 16 at the time, but even then I thought it was the wrong attitude. Maybe they were trying to take the pressure off the players, but it was pretty clearly the best chance we were ever going to have to win the league. Wish we had been a bit more desperate. I'm have very little time for the accusations of us being 'little old Norwich' but do wonder if there might have been some truth in it at that crucial moment.

[Segura 101]

Thank you for sharing this brought back some lovely memories.

The following article is also an interesting and slightly amusing take on Mike's managerial career:

https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/mike-walker/

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

6 minutes ago, Segura said:

Thank you for sharing this brought back some lovely memories.

The following article is also an interesting and slightly amusing take on Mike's managerial career:

https://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/mike-walker/

That was great, thanks for sharing. Hopefully more people will read it and so get my brilliant joke further up this thread 😉 

[TIL 1010 5,303]

Only just got around to watching this and the memories came flooding back. You young uns on here who were not fans at that time should really take a few minutes to view it.

[wcorkcanary 4,839]

21 hours ago, Fosterslager88 said:

I really enjoyed the episode and hope it becomes a regular occurrence, so many club legends they could do episodes with.

I remember when we beat villa and was convinced that night it was going to be our year, maybe some investment might have helped but looking back now I think I agree with Walker that Man Utd were just too strong and felt inevitable.

On a different note, does anyone know where a download or dvd of that 92/93 season review can be found!?

I have a copy of the DVD , but believe I watched the very same on YouTube  a few years ago.  Will have  a look later... or you could,  if you haven't already, pretty sure it was  YouTube though. 

[Barham Blitz 908]

That was a great listen - brought back some good memories.

Although when he was talking about updating his CV with non-footballing jobs I though he had listed 'wrecking defences' as one of his key skills which would have been slightly unfair but amusingly self-effacing. Took a quick rewind to confirm it was 'erecting fences' ...

Perhaps instead of scouring Europe for managers we should just have a quick nosey around Colchester in future ...  Seems to work well.

[Michael Starr 583]

Oh man, that team was special. We could have properly established ourselves as a Premier League club for years to come had Chase not sold the assets quite so quickly. I get why he did it. Chase did do some good stuff for us too but it's soo frustrating to look back on that era. Interesting to hear that Walker wanted to stay! I seem to recall reports at the time suggesting that he jumped ship as soon as we were out of europe. I also remember how unlucky we were vs Inter Milan with injuries. Some things never change.

[Big Vince 430]

Walker on £50k per annum.

Bowen and Fleck having a fight.

Cliques in the changing room. Tottenham boys. Scottish boys. Northern boys.

Mr Chase not expecting to pay all those performance related bonuses.

£20k in a brown envelope handed over to some gangsters in south London.

Walker claims NOT tapped up by Everton?

[It's Character Forming 1,211]

47 minutes ago, Michael Starr said:

Oh man, that team was special. We could have properly established ourselves as a Premier League club for years to come had Chase not sold the assets quite so quickly. I get why he did it. Chase did do some good stuff for us too but it's soo frustrating to look back on that era. Interesting to hear that Walker wanted to stay! I seem to recall reports at the time suggesting that he jumped ship as soon as we were out of europe. I also remember how unlucky we were vs Inter Milan with injuries. Some things never change.

I seem to remember at the time it was the fact that he was being paid £50k per year and Everton came calling which was a genuinely big job then, so hard for him to turn down.

 

Agreed it's incredibly frustrating with hindsight, it wouldn't have taken much for us to win the title that year.

[GenerationA47 868]

Required listening for everyone (not least our resident Chase apologists?) - really great work, Mr Rush

Love the way when he got the job offer from Ipswich, he effectively refused* and chose an upgrade to literally managing rubbish. 

 He comes across much more likeable and jovial than his more tight-lipped professional, almost curmudgeonly persona at the time (to my recollection… That might have been influenced by resentment at his leaving us but being older and wiser now, can totally see why

 

*yes it was because of the Toffees money really . Narrow escape.. Walker was 2 weeks away from being John the Baptist to Lambert’s Judas**
 

**Er.. may need to check your scripture

[Splendid Rush 8]

Thanks for the kind words folks. I’m so glad it’s going down well!

[PurpleCanary 6,463]

4 hours ago, Michael Starr said:

Oh man, that team was special. We could have properly established ourselves as a Premier League club for years to come had Chase not sold the assets quite so quickly. I get why he did it. Chase did do some good stuff for us too but it's soo frustrating to look back on that era. Interesting to hear that Walker wanted to stay! I seem to recall reports at the time suggesting that he jumped ship as soon as we were out of europe. I also remember how unlucky we were vs Inter Milan with injuries. Some things never change.

We had some players suspended as well. It is a long time ago but my memory is it was more that. I think Crook, for example, was suspended.

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

3 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

We had some players suspended as well. It is a long time ago but my memory is it was more that. I think Crook, for example, was suspended.

All three of the great Ians were suspended.

Blame the very card-happy ref at Arnhem.

@PurpleCanary and others might be interested in this contemporary preview by the great Joe Lovejoy (no relation), which confirms the suspension of the Ians and gives a flavour of how the national press saw us at the time.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/european-football-makeshift-norwich-seeking-to-defy-history-walker-banks-on-his-team-s-awaygoals-record-as-bowen-and-megson-try-to-fill-gaps-left-by-culverhouse-and-crook-1466213.html

Edited November 21, 2024 by Robert N. LiM

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

1 hour ago, Robert N. LiM said:

All three of the great Ians were suspended.

In fact, if you asked me to name three great Ians, I probably wouldn't say McKellen or Botham or...

I'd just say CulverhouseCrookButterworth

...

Henderson

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

2 hours ago, Robert N. LiM said:

All three of the great Ians were suspended.

Blame the very card-happy ref at Arnhem.

@PurpleCanary and others might be interested in this contemporary preview by the great Joe Lovejoy (no relation), which confirms the suspension of the Ians and gives a flavour of how the national press saw us at the time.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/european-football-makeshift-norwich-seeking-to-defy-history-walker-banks-on-his-team-s-awaygoals-record-as-bowen-and-megson-try-to-fill-gaps-left-by-culverhouse-and-crook-1466213.html

And here's Lovejoy's match report. Ye gods, what times. Did we know at the time that it would be the pinnacle of NCFC's history? I guess we probably did:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/european-football-norwich-produce-stirring-exit-line-bergkamp-supplies-the-coup-de-grace-but-walker-s-depleted-expeditionary-force-are-treated-to-a-san-siro-ovation-1466427.html

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

And finally.

Really good long read from Michael Bailey in the Athletic. Seems to be free to read.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1228097/2019/10/12/norwich-uefa-cup-run/

[GenerationA47 868]

37 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

And finally.

Really good long read from Michael Bailey in the Athletic. Seems to be free to read.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1228097/2019/10/12/norwich-uefa-cup-run/

Thanks… unfortunately blocked as ‘subscriber only content’ for me

(I discontinued my subs after they basically stopped covering Norwich)

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

13 minutes ago, GenerationA47 said:

Thanks… unfortunately blocked as ‘subscriber only content’ for me

(I discontinued my subs after they basically stopped covering Norwich)

Weird, I'm not a subscriber but they let me read it. Clicked the link and it was subscriber only again. Anyway, for those with Athletic subs, it's really good.

[Robert N. LiM 6,442]

@GenerationA47

 

‘I remember marking Bergkamp at the time and he was taking me to areas of the pitch that I had never been before’

By Michael Bailey

Oct 12, 2019

 

“It was like all our dreams came true. An experience that will live with us all forever.” – Ian Culverhouse.

Norwich City’s participation in European competition only lasted 540 minutes but the memories will remain for a lifetime.

And it was a sequence of unlikely events that made their 1993-94 UEFA Cup campaign happen, the personal struggles for manager Mike Walker, the innovation of a sweeper system and celebrating an iconic moment with your mum.

These were the country bumpkins that announced themselves across the channel, becoming the nation’s second team in the process.

The inaugural Premier League season was not looking promising.

Norwich had not won a single pre-season friendly and they were favourites for relegation before a ball was kicked. Then, on the opening day, they fought back to stun one of the title-favourites, Arsenal, 4-2. Walker’s side led the division by eight points at Christmas but ultimately had to settle for third place behind Aston Villa and eventual champions Manchester United.

It took a 3-3 draw at Middlesbrough on the final day to hold off Blackburn in fourth, and remains the club’s highest league finish. But it still required something exceptional for Norwich to translate it into a UEFA Cup spot for the following season.

Arsenal had already beaten Sheffield Wednesday in the 1993 League Cup final. Now, the pair were lining up for an FA Cup final replay at Wembley. It remains the only time in English football that two sides have played each other in both domestic cup finals.

If Arsenal did the double, they would book their place in the now-defunct European Cup Winners’ Cup, and hand their League Cup winners’ UEFA Cup berth to the team that finished third in the Premier League.

Norwich were on the brink of playing in Europe for the first time, although it would not have been the first time they qualified. They had been denied on two previous occasions due to the ban on English clubs competing in Europe following the Heysel disaster — those were after winning the League Cup in 1985 and their previous highest finish of fourth in 1988-89.

It was a captivating scenario – but not enough to change Norwich’s post-season plans.

Walker’s squad were in the Cayman Islands for a post-season trip, where the pool and beers were partially interrupted by a friendly against the Cayman national team. Norwich lost 1-0 and no more was said about the preparations or performance.

Their diving trip was a little more controversial. Efan Ekoku was sat on the side of the boat, unusually quiet: “I got out and thought, what the hell am I doing here?” Ekoku could not swim but it didn’t stop him throwing himself into the water, which was part of the problem.

Norwich chairman Robert Chase arrived at their resort soon after the players, to tear a strip off the organisers for allowing a diving expedition that the club’s insurance did not cover.

It was a big risk for a Premier League squad. But even greater for one about to embark on its first European campaign.

At Wembley, the Arsenal centre-back Andy Linighan headed home the winning goal in the last minute of extra time, sending his former club into the UEFA Cup through what felt like the back door.

As the Norwich players watched on and celebrated with their beers at The Wharf on Grand Cayman, Bryan Gunn was at a Norwich restaurant to keep himself in good order ahead of impending Scotland duty.

“I was in a white shirt, black leather trousers, had my slicked-back pony tail, and I went into the kitchen to find out the FA Cup score, sweating in more ways than one,” says Gunn. “When I found out, I shouted: ‘champagne all-round!’…and then I saw someone get up and leave, while telling me thank you for the bottle.”

The Norwich squad’s celebrations were understandable for financial reasons too. Their modest wages came with a heavily incentivised bonus scheme negotiated by the players each summer — and they had finally got their hands on their prize for qualifying for Europe.

“For 45 minutes, we absolutely got our arses smacked,” says Ian Crook, sitting with a customary pint of coke. A legendarily cultured midfielder, Crook felt it most when Vitesse Arnhem arrived from the Netherlands for the first leg of their first-round tie at Carrow Road, and duly passed Norwich off the pitch.

“We never got near them. Glenn Helder gave Ian Culverhouse a tough time, and not many people got the better of Cully. How we went in 0-0, I’ll never know.”

Vitesse’s side at the time also featured Phillip Cocu, Raimond van der Gouw and Theo Bos, plus a 4-3-3 variation Norwich had not experienced before, with wider forwards splitting off rather than working as a trio.

Yet Vitesse were also the ideal opening opponents as they gave an unseeded Norwich one half of football to find their feet. Norwich did not need to leave their toes dipped in the water any longer.

Come half-time, Walker told his team their visitors were not as good as the amount of respect his side were giving them. Norwich raised the tempo, scored three quick goals, and all but killed the tie before the second leg.

Jeremy Goss and John Polston completed the scoring, but Ekoku had the honour of Norwich’s first European goal after being found by a gorgeous ball from Crook.

Goss celebrates scoring against Vitesse (Photo: Steve Etherington/EMPICS via Getty Images)

“The whole atmosphere; it just felt different but without being able to say how,” says Ekoku. “It was just a feeling. When people talk about there being electricity in the air, I think that was the first time I knew what it felt like.

“With players like Ian Crook, you could always make the run or movement and be confident some sort of ball you could feed on would get to you. I never played with anybody who was a better passer than him.”

Ekoku was in the form of his life. In the Premier League match that preceded the return leg in Arnhem, Norwich thrashed Everton 5-1 at Goodison Park. Ekoku became the first player to score four times in a Premier League game.

The following game in the Nieuw Monnikenhuize, Ekoku spurned every opportunity that came his way.

“Looking back now, maybe I was a bit distracted because you get a lot of attention when you have a day like that one at Everton, and I wasn’t used to it,” reflects Ekoku. “With hindsight, I probably wasn’t as sharp mentally as I should’ve been going into the game, and if you’re not, then you don’t perform well enough. I think Mike said afterwards it was the life of a striker, and I’d used up my quota at Everton.”

The realisation of a dream still came for Ekoku, however, as he was allowed to sit in the cockpit on Norwich’s return flight. He recalls seeing the lights of Bournemouth at 30,000ft. The Nigeria striker had been playing for the third-tier side six months earlier.

Their flight was redirected to Stansted after the plane ahead of them carrying Norwich supporters and dignitaries overshot the runway at Norwich Airport. Its legacy was a certificate later handed to those on the flight by Norwich’s commercial department, written to “Norwich City’s Grasshoppers’ Club” with the motto: “50 yards too far”.

Norwich left Arnhem having done the business on the pitch. A goalless draw sent City into the second round, achieved in a navy blue third kit Crook described as the best strip they ever had — a pertinent point given Norwich’s 1993 home shirt remains memorable, even now, for its fashion crimes.

The navy kit was so well-liked, kit man Jock Robertson told Norwich utility player Rob Newman he was not allowed to swap shirts with Bos because Norwich might draw another team that plays in yellow in the next round.

It was during pre-season in Denver, Colorado, that Walker took his grand plan for a spin.

Norwich were taking on Bayer Leverkusen in the Mile High Stadium, where the air was thin and their new sweeper system, conceived as Walker watched South American football during the close season, was given its debut in yellow and green.

Three centre-backs — usually John Polston, Ian Butterworth and Rob Newman — enjoyed the luxury of Culverhouse sweeping up behind them, while wing-backs tracked each flank and a central midfield pairing fed Norwich’s front two.

It made Norwich difficult to break down as they automatically sat deep. Communication was key as Culverhouse, an excellent reader of the game, and Gunn made sure neither took up each other’s space.

“There were plenty of bodies in front of me and they all seemed closer than normal,” adds Gunn.

Further up the pitch, Crook and Goss used the ball well enough to provide workable service for the pace of Ruel Fox and Ekoku, alongside a young Chris Sutton and his blossoming hold-up play.

“Coming up with that was typical Mike,” says Culverhouse. “We played deep in that thin air and never pushed out at all but we looked quite secure.

“I remember Gary Megson coming in afterwards, and he liked a moan at the best of times. He threw his boots in the corner and said, ‘If we’re going to start playing like this, forget about me; it’s too much work.’

“We came back to England and pushed a lot higher, squeezed the play in a little bit, and Meggo found himself out of the team, so I think he should have kept his mouth shut.

“It was a really unusual system and it worked for us because no one had seen it before. I had three people in front of me that just attacked the ball and made it easy. Everything they missed; it was my job to sweep round. We caused teams some problems because they really weren’t used to it.”

The system was a speciality away from home and it worked. As well as at Everton, Norwich beat Leeds 4-0 at Elland Road, had suffocated Vitesse, and were waiting to see where they could take it next.

“I remember speaking to Mark Bowen before the Vitesse second leg and we were wondering whether 3-0 was enough. We were a negative bunch to say the least. What if they scored early?” says Crook, who was a youngster at Tottenham during their UEFA Cup win in 1984.

“Spurs were half-expected to win but at Norwich, to be fair, we didn’t expect it. If you’re serious about winning something, you are looking at the draw thinking: ‘We need to miss this club and that club to get through.’ But we were the other way. Bayern Munich? Brilliant! At least we’ll go out playing one of the big boys. We really should’ve been thinking we wanted to avoid them.

“I don’t think we realised we were as good as we were at the time, and that probably helped us.”

Norwich looked the real deal by rattling off four successive wins before they headed to Germany in October.

“The night before was fantastic,” says Gunn. “We trained on the Olympic Stadium pitch and the atmosphere in the group really was excellent. I think they ended up dimming the floodlights to get us off. Everyone was getting involved in the five-a-side at the end.”

Walker ensured his side trained on the morning of the game too, keeping to the usual routine by getting the players kitted up and out on a nearby park.

“It really was any park,” says Culverhouse. “You had to miss all the dog mess, things like that. That’s how low key it was. I remember getting out of our hotel in our kit and there was a park next to the Olympic Stadium, and we just trained on there. We were running up and down and people were walking past with their dogs, looking at us. It was like the Dog & Duck on tour in Germany.”

Norwich’s entire first-team squad travelled but not everyone made the game. Polston had a minor injury, while Ekoku was facing the rest of the year out after over-icing a sore knee and inadvertently freezing the nerve.

“It was probably the most frustrating trip I’d ever been on,” he says. “You never get that opportunity again for the first time.

“But then, an hour before kick-off, I was walking outside the dressing rooms and heard this voice say, ‘Ah, you are Ekoku.’ I turned around and it was Uli Hoeness. When you are a young kid and you meet a guy you used to admire when you were nine years old, it’s quite a big thing.

“I think I just said, ‘Yeah I am,’ and then walked off a bit sheepishly. It was just a shame that it was a chance for me to show what I could do in front of people like that, which I couldn’t take.”

In the dressing room, Ekoku’s frustration was replaced by team tension. Fresh from making sure no shirts were exchanged in Arnhem, kit man Robertson had spent a lot of time making sure the Norwich players arrived in a meticulous environment; something a typically dry Sutton took exception to.

One fallen pile of towels later, a chair was sent flying and Robertson went for Sutton’s midriff.

“You couldn’t write it – our striker and a kit man, having a squabble before the biggest game in your history,” laughs Rob Newman.

Once the scrap was dealt with, the mood was suitably lifted — and the incident clearly had no adverse effect on Norwich’s efforts on the pitch.

Goss’s flying volley and a header from Bowen gave Norwich a 2-0 lead inside the opening half an hour. They conceded before half-time but held on for an historic 2-1 win. No other English side experienced victory at the ground.

“They were two goals Raimond Aumann never moved for but I wasn’t really worried about the German goalkeepers’ union that night,” says Gunn. “I saved that shot from Gossy every day in training but what a great connection. Would I have saved it on that night? I very much doubt it.”

Sutton, Goss, Newman and Daryl Sutch after the victory in Munich (Photo: Ross Kinnaird/EMPICS via Getty Images)

Bayern captain Lothar Matthaus was not happy, labelling his side’s defeat to Norwich “a disgrace”. Their opponents remembered those words for the next fortnight.

“The thing I actually regret now is I wasn’t really one for spotlight stuff, so as soon as the game finished, I went straight into the changing room. I missed all the guys going behind the goal, taking pictures,” says Crook. “For me, I guess we hadn’t done anything up to then. But I do remember sitting in this really big, white, shallow bath. I laid in there with Mark Bowen, Cully; we were all knackered and it just hit you. We all got really flat.”

That was, until Goss returned.

“The bath was only about 3ft deep and Gossy comes in after doing all his press, runs in and dives into this bath,” says Culverhouse. “For the next 10 minutes, he was in agony because he’s belly-flopped and we were all crying with laughter. He’d just gone out and scored the goal of goals, and now he’s writhing around.”

Newman adds: “We celebrated in the hotel piano bar afterwards, and that never happened. If you can’t celebrate beating Bayern, then what can you celebrate? But we sort of forgot about the second leg and the fact we still had to play them again.”

Norwich supporters had dealt with a strict entrance policy in the Netherlands and arrived in Munich with a tight police escort and the close attention of German riot police — until it became apparent there would be minimal trouble from their visitors. They left Munich with no escort whatsoever.

One fan had forgotten where the coaches were picking up from, so he followed the yellow wave in front assuming it would take him to his transport — not realising they were all Munich fans who had swapped shirts with their visitors.

As for Crook, he returned home to find his wife Jo had put up yellow and green balloons on the porch outside their house. It was the only time she ever did it.

There were two nasty surprises waiting for Norwich on their return to England. Mark Robins’ knee injury suffered early in the game at Bayern was set to keep him out for months, while long-serving physio Tim Sheppard fell foul of UEFA officialdom.

“Ruel was injured and if a player was on the far side of the pitch, I would always stay there and crouch down until I’d seen the player was OK, or they shouted they were fine,” he says. “But they didn’t like me doing that in Munich. The linesman shouted at me and then it happened again, so I did the same thing.”

Norwich later received a letter saying Sheppard had been booked for his misdemeanour, the club lost its appeal, and Sheppard was banned from doing his job in the return leg at Carrow Road.

“I felt guilty I’d put that pressure on Keith (assistant physio) but the whole thing was a farce,” says Sheppard.

The night of November 3, 1993, will never be forgotten by those inside Carrow Road.

“Mike had the door open to the dressing room and standing there he said, ‘Oi, make sure we’re tight early on.’ They scored after four minutes,” says Crook.

Some had made big sacrifices to feature. Gunn damaged his shoulder at Arsenal. It was almost a dislocation, now strapped up and injected with painkillers to ensure he was fit for Munich’s visit to Carrow Road — at the expense of his international career.

“I pulled out of a squad for a friendly against Malta,” recalls Gunn. “I’d played six times before that and this time, I said I could play but I didn’t want to train on my shoulder and make it worse with every dive. But they wanted me to train too, so I declared myself unfit and Jim Leighton came back in from the wilderness. He played the next 10 games.

“So my shoulder injury and desire to play against Bayern Munich could possibly have cost me my Scotland career.

“But it was special. The early plans went out of the window but the reaction from the fans… There were no boos or disappointment. It was just a surge of atmosphere I’d never heard before at Carrow Road, and that’s what lifted us into keeping it tight and the back, making goalscoring opportunities, Sutton beasting his centre-back and then Gossy scoring.”

Ekoku added: “I never experienced an occasion like that at any other club I was at. It was laced with adrenaline. A truly great occasion.”

Goss was indeed the man of the moment, his 51st-minute volley restoring Norwich’s aggregate lead in the tie and ultimately their passage into the third round. It also became a family affair.

“I just side-footed the ball in and I think at that point, the whole crowd knew we were going to win the tie,” says Goss. “I just ran with adrenaline, sprinted in front of the City Stand and the zone where our family and friends had their tickets. I saw my mates straight away and Mark Walton, one of my best friends, was right in front of me. He started to run down but before he could get to me and lift me up, my mum came from nowhere and gave me a big hug.

“It’s ridiculous isn’t it? That you’d actually celebrate scoring against Bayern Munich with your mum.”

However, that was only the start of the attention for Joy Goss.

“We were up at the training ground in Trowse a few days later and there was loads of press. Mike grabbed me to say they wanted to speak to me and to make sure I said the right things. I was revelling in it all, so I wandered over, knew what I was going to say, and they said, ‘Well done Jerry. The other night; different class…. Can we speak to your mum? We don’t want to speak to you. Can we phone her because we want her reaction?’ So they phoned her up and she was on the TV, all over the newspapers. It really was comic book stuff.”

That was certainly the case for Goss who, come the full-time whistle, had swiftly dashed towards Lothar Matthaus to make sure he ended up with his Bayern shirt. The Munich captain had a rather less enjoyable affair however and, after swapping shirts, Goss soon found his Norwich top tossed aside on the floor.

Goss, wearing Matthaus’s Bayern shirt, and Walker after the 1-1 draw at Carrow Road (Photo: John Stillwell – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

“Gossy had all of us on toast because he was fortunate enough to have his testimonial the year after, so he got the monopoly on saying, ‘I’m having Lothar Matthaus’ shirt, Dennis Bergkamp’s shirt’,” smiles Newman. “He was saying he needed the shirts for his testimonial but he had earned it. No one had a problem with it at all.”

The party continued into the night and into the city as Goss and his team-mates queued up alongside supporters to get into clubs and mark the evening in style.

Polston adds: “Gossy was on fire at the time. He was the main man. Everyone wanted to speak to him. We might have given him a little bit of stick for that but he was such a nice guy — he’d been at the club so long and had to wait for his chance — that everyone was really pleased for him.”

John Deehan was Walker’s assistant but already a Norwich playing hero. He was also a favourite at Aston Villa and was part of their run to the 1978 UEFA Cup quarter-finals. He came in handy for Walker, especially during that epic night at home to Munich, as Adolfo Valencia levelled the tie 2-2 on aggregate so early on — but with Norwich still ahead on the away goals rule.

“I was sat beside Mike. We kicked off and went 1-0 down on the night and he said to me, ‘What’s happening?’” says Deehan.

“I told him not to worry. We were still in front and he said, ‘How?’. I explained it was because we’d scored two away goals. I had to spent the 90 minutes basically explaining it all to him. He kept asking me, ‘Where are we now?’. It just didn’t make sense to him that we could be drawing 2-2 but still winning.”

Walker and Deehan were a slick partnership. The manager loved to organise and plan — allowing Deehan to concentrate on his coaching sessions. One included playing under head height on a pitch just 20 yards wide and 60 yards long. It was almost impossible to train on but made the players look forward quickly; a theme they developed into games.

Norwich’s coaching duo had already proven creative and innovative. They also had the respect of their players — in the most trying of circumstances.

“He was good at saying the right thing,” says Ekoku of Walker. “He trusted players. I remember Gossy saying to me that one of the reasons he always respected Mike was because when he was in the reserves, he said to Jerry he would play him if he was managing the first team — and when he got the job, he was true to his word.

“I felt like that with Mike as well. If he told you something, he would generally do it. Some coaches say something but mean something else. Mike never did that. Sometimes, the fewer words you say, the greater impact they have. You don’t want to let down someone like that.”

Deehan adds: “What a lot of people don’t know is Mike’s wife Jacqueline had been was diagnosed with cancer at the time. It was a difficult period because I could tell some days were really down days for Mike and it wasn’t nice. We just had to try to get on with it. It was trying to get the right amount of sympathy and then telling Mike when I had to take care of the team. You had to move on and do something different, because the football wasn’t the be all and end all.

“He was carrying two burdens. He had his responsibility to Norwich City and at the same time, his responsibility to his family.”

If unseeded Norwich were taken too lightly by Bayern Munich, their third-round opponents never seemed likely to repeat the mistake. With Ruben Sosa, Dennis Bergkamp, Giuseppe Bergomi and Walter Zenga among their ranks, Norwich’s European naivety finally told against Inter Milan.

“If we had been seasoned campaigners, we would have settled for 0-0 at the end of the home leg and with the way we were away from home… that’s where we were dumb; we had no idea,” says Crook.

“We were chasing to get in front to get a result at Carrow Road, which left us a little bit bare at the back and then we go 1-0 down. That suited them. If we’d have drawn 0-0, they would have had to come out and we still would’ve had enough going to forward to cause them problems.”

Sosa had the run of Norwich’s half as he broke with just three minutes to play. Newman slid in to halt his progress and sent the Uruguayan to the floor. Bergkamp dispatched the penalty.

“It was a typical English tackle with a typical South American reaction,” says Gunn.

The yellow cards were mounting too. Norwich faced San Siro suspensions for their three Ians — Crook, Culverhouse and Butterworth — as well as mounting injuries.

Norwich players remonstrate with the referee after he awards Inter a free kick and books one of their players (Photo: Arnold Slater/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

The players were not even allowed to hold on to the shirts they had swapped, being ordered to return them by Inter with the promise of a replica shirt in return, which they delivered.

“I remember marking Bergkamp at the time and he was taking me to areas of the pitch that I had never been before,” says Culverhouse. “His movement was absolutely frightening. I came off the pitch and I was in awe of him. He was a magnificent player.

“They didn’t come out at all. They played on the counter and it was something we weren’t really used to because we had to build it up and try to break them down. It was an education.”

The training was ferocious and John Polston fell foul.

Ahead of the biggest game in his career, fresh from returning to the side for the Carrow Road dates with Bayern and Inter, the defender rolled his ankle in a tackle from team-mate Ade Akinbiyi.

“Leading up to the game, I remember praying my ankle would be all right,” recalls Polston. “I remember I had a fitness test on the pitch but it wasn’t really. Tim had strapped my ankle up and I could hardly move, to be honest with you. I could barely jog, let alone play a game. So I knew straight away I was out and I was gutted.”

Sheppard adds: “Sometimes you have to prove to players that they’re not fit. They have this euphoria that takes over where they think they’re fit and they want to be fit, and you have to diplomatically show them they’re not going to be fit. John was a very good pro and he was very upset but he had to get on with it.”

Polston was out for three months.

The better news was Ekoku had recovered from his frozen nerve, although he was supposed to be out until after Christmas —— not the beginning of December. After eight weeks on the sidelines and a few days of first-team training, the striker could only loft his best chance of the afternoon well over Zenga’s bar.

With a more stable and strong leg, Ekoku reckons he would have made a better fist of that opportunity.

“It was nice to play in the stadium, but I couldn’t do myself justice,” he says.

Bad news for some was good news for others, and 22-year-old Robert Ullathorne understood the significance. Norwich’s understudy left-back followed his team-mates’ win in Munich on his sofa at home. In Milan, he made sure to nick the teamsheet pinned to the wall as a keepsake; one he still owns today.

“I knew there was a chance given injuries and suspensions but all I remember is Ian Butterworth saying to me I was going to be playing; I don’t know if some of the elder statesmen had been speaking to Mike,” says Ullathorne.

“I roomed with Colin Woodthorpe and I knew he was going to be playing. So when Butts told me, I started to prepare for the game and butterflies started going in my stomach. Then when we trained the night before, I found out when we started doing some set pieces.

“But I just tried to play it all down in my head. It didn’t matter if I was playing Bognor Regis or Inter Milan, whoever, I made sure nothing changed for me otherwise my headspace wasn’t right and I wasn’t preparing properly.”

The San Siro pitch was like rolled mud. It cut up quickly. Ground staff had all manner of issues trying to get sunlight and oxygen to the surface — not that it stopped Norwich training on the pitch the evening before the game, which included their suspended players.

“That was a great experience,” says Culverhouse. “Because we weren’t going to make the pitch in the game, we wanted a team picture at the end of training — and I remember Gary Megson having another moan saying, ‘We’re not on tour’. But we all wanted a team photo to say we had been in the San Siro. Sure, he wanted us to take it seriously, but he did get in the photo — and he ordered one, by the way.”

The day was most memorable to Rob Newman, who played in all six games and led Norwich out in Milan.

“I never knew I was captain until probably 50 minutes before kick-off,” he says. “Three or four of our captains were either injured or suspended, so Mike made me captain. It was a fantastic honour, walking out there and dreams coming true to play in the San Siro. But to actually lead us out… my picture of that has pride of place on one of my walls.

“It was the only time I captained Norwich. If you’re going to be captain for one game, that’s the one you would want.”

The game saw Norwich toil, producing a series of half-chances and a new weapon so secret, even they didn’t know it existed.

“I remember we found out Spencer Prior had a long throw that day,” says Gunn. “It was late in the first half and all of a sudden, he launched one 30 yards into the box, and that was it. We suddenly had a new weapon to use.”

Ekoku adds: “The Italian defenders were much more attentive when the ball was nowhere near you. I remember that. Giuseppe Bergomi in particular; it almost felt like he was inside my shirt. They followed you from one side of the area to the other, if you went backwards or forwards.

“They were more rigid than Premier League teams then but that was something we had to get used to. Until you actually get on the pitch with them, you can’t make the adjustments that are necessary. If you can’t make them within an hour or over two legs, then you’ve not worked the puzzle out. But for those teams that play in these competitions every season, they get used to it.”

Ekoku’s work was not done with the final whistle. Summoned to doping control, he said both hello and goodbye to an Inter pair that included Bergkamp before waiting an hour with no sign of his own urine sample.

“I was there for bloody ages,” says Ekoku. “The psychology of whether you win or lose is amazing. They gave their sample straight away and I just couldn’t do it. In the end, I drank a couple of beers and then went within five minutes.”

Norwich lost 1-0 to a second goal from Bergkamp in the tie — like the first leg, in the 88th minute — as the visitors overcommitted in attack and left chasms at the back.

The squad were soon back in Norwich, with a few heading to a restaurant along with their wives to drown their sorrows.

Crook says: “The boys did great that day and to be honest with you, it was great to go and to say you were there. But it wasn’t easy to watch.”

Culverhouse adds: “I still believe if we’d had our full team out, we would have had a really good chance of beating them there, because they were a lot more open than they were at our place and the fear factor had gone out of it. We had seen what we could do against them.

“What I do remember is the changing rooms were disappointing. Really plain. I remember looking out thinking, ‘Wow, you’ve got this international stadium and the changing room was a little pokey thing.’

“As I was just hanging outside after the game, you had Bergkamp and Sosa come through and they were walking around in their sparkling robes and slippers, going for a massage. And we were in our soggy pants walking around with our guts hanging out. It was a different world.”

Some 26 years on and Goss is speaking to a group of Norwich business owners at Carrow Road. Behind him is the glow of soothing orange pitch heaters, the likes of which the San Siro of 1993 could only dream. Also in view is the goal in which he scored against Bayern Munich, and the seat where his mum was watching.

“The limelight that suddenly came my way was spectacular,” he says to his audience. “It put big pressure on me. Everywhere I went, I was a marked guy. Each time I played I was expected to score another 30-yard volley. You hit 20 of those shots and 19 go over the bar; all players know that. It all got to me in the end. I think it all affected me because times weren’t good after that run.”

Yet Goss swiftly acknowledges he would not change a thing about those days in 1993. No one involved would.

From being dubbed ‘little old Norwich’, the team that finished third in the Premier League the previous season was treated as the elite squad they were when they travelled into Europe. A group of players at the peak of its powers, stitched together from Tottenham and further afield, as well as the club’s own youth production line.

Walker arrived back from Milan to take some final interviews in Norwich airport’s arrivals lounge, when he was asked, “Where next?”

“That was where he took everyone by surprise and came out with the classic line that the chairman has got to open the purse strings because we’ve got something special here — but we’ve got to build on this, and that means spending a bit of money,” remembers former Anglia TV sports journalist Kevin Piper. “That was the beginning of the end.”

By January, Walker had become Everton manager and a number of Norwich players were sold before the club was then relegated to the second tier — just 18 months after being defeated by Inter.

What happened next was sour. But what happened before will always remain sweet.

“You feel you were part of something really exciting for the fans, and that’s what it is all about — making people feel good about watching their team, and you personally as a player to play a special part in that,” says Ekoku.

Gunn adds: “Living in the north west now, people do remember me from those days and I think we were everyone’s second-favourite team. Football fans remember that special time for us. We were country bumpkins to the Germans, and little old Norwich to others — but we put our football club on the map and showed the football world the style our club wanted to play.”

“They were a golden group of players to work with,” says Deehan. “I will never, ever forget the stadium in Munich, the experience and exhilaration of that final whistle. It was just incredible.”

And that is why the story of Norwich City in Europe will always be about more than just six games in the spotlight for a few months in late 1993.