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Welshwomble

Hi from a Wrexham fan

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On the Wrexham board they are asking for the best ever Wrexham players, and I think the goal keeper you bought from us was one of them. We clled him the fox. I know he was very popular with Norwich fans and I think he stayed with you was his name Kelan.

Just in passing I do recall a cup tie against you were you according to the tale kicked us off the park!!

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Thats right, he did not want to leave Wrexham. Do you think he should have been considerd for an international spot.

I think they called him the cat, I once saw him change direction in mid air!!

Good luck for the season, we have I think a good manager in Brian Little but not sure about the owners.

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[quote user="Welshwomble"]

Thats right, he did not want to leave Wrexham. Do you think he should have been considerd for an international spot.

I think they called him the cat, I once saw him change direction in mid air!!

Good luck for the season, we have I think a good manager in Brian Little but not sure about the owners.

[/quote]

Says Keelan in his book The Story Of A Goalkeeper :

"I jumped at the chance. I got in my old Morris Minor and drove all the way to norwich. The roads in those days were nothing special and my only thought  on the way was how bloody far it was. It took me hours.

I arrived in Norwich late in the afternoon and after taking quite a bit of time driving round looking for Carrow Road I met Ron Ashman in his office. He struck me straight away as a pleasant down to earth chap.

We talked terms for a time. I was offered £20 a week and told that I would be able to live in a club house, as I did in Wrexham. I was quite happy and rang Ken Barnes to tell him I wanted to sign. He gave me the go ahead.

I had been told that norwich was a lovely city, as it is, but that had no effect on my decision. That was by the way. What mattered was that the club were in the Second Division and this meant a step up for me.

I was very sorry to be leaving ken Barnes. He has been a marvellous help tpo me throughout my career and we are still close today. He and Ken Roberts rescued me when it looked as if my professional career might have been over and I will always thank them for that.

The Ken barnes he talks about was father of Peter Barnes who played for England in the 80''s. He was Wrexham manager at the time and Wrexham won promotion in the time Keelan played for them so they must have been good times my friend. It''s 45 years ago now! I too saw Keelan change direction in mid air and I have no hesitation in nominating him the greatest player I have seen play for Norwich.

 

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Kevin Keelan was the best Goalkeeper I ever saw play for Norwich City and we have been very lucky in this club since his time to have some very good ones. It was a disgrace that he was never considered for International Duty and I am sure if he had moved to one of the "big" clubs he would have been treated differently.

I can remember games where his performance alone was worth much more than the gate fee. He rarely made mistakes and could always be relied on to produce excellent saves. He certainly helped Norwich push on into the big league and was a credit to the Club both on and off the pitch.

A great great keeper 

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Never saw him play (not old enough). But know his grand son pretty well![:D] went to the same school, same year, played in the same footy team etc ...

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I just noticed this thread so I thought i''d get involved. I''m a Norwich fan from wrexham. One poster asked about Llewellyn, i know that he has gone to Grimsby. Much like Norwich supporters, opinion on "Izzy" is divided amongst wrexham fans( I can remember great debates with foghorn from years gone by on here about LLewellyn''s abilities, or lack of them). I go to watch wrexham often and they have a couple of young players to keep on eye on, namely Taylor and wes baynes. Norwich have had their fair share of good welsh players: Bellamy, Roberts, Bowen , Keelan and of course Carl Robinson!!    

I''m fairly excited about the current season for Norwich. One thing the current team lacks is a real fans favourite, we have always had one player who is loved by all the supporters, i''m thinking your Earnshaw, Bellamy, Ashton, Eadie or Huckerby! Hopefully Hoolahan can take this role. I''m keeping positive, i''m hoping people remember that the team is going to take a vvhile to gel. I can remember worthy''s first full season vvhen vve had a number of new players and we got hammered by Millwall on the opening day, we went on to the play-offs that year!

 

Apologies for the longish post, havent posted for a long time!

 

   

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Says Keelan in his book The Story Of A Goalkeeper :

"I jumped at the chance. I got in my old Morris Minor and drove all the way to norwich. The roads in those days were nothing special and my only thought  on the way was how bloody far it was. It took me hours....

[/quote]The roads now are nothing special. Especially coming from Wrexham![quote user="Welsh NorwichFan"]...One thing

the current team lacks is a real fans favourite, we have always had one

player who is loved by all the supporters, i''m thinking your Earnshaw,

Bellamy, Ashton, Eadie or Huckerby!...[/quote]What about Doherty! ;-)I liked Roeder''s comment on him:"At times last season he was our most consistent player"Doesn''t that make him inconsistently consistent?

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Given that we''ve got somebody on from N Wales can they tell me why I am having difficulty sourcing some quarry tiles from Ruabon quarry ?

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[quote user="5-4-1"]Given that we''ve got somebody on from N Wales can they tell me why I am having difficulty sourcing some quarry tiles from Ruabon quarry ?[/quote]

I might be able to enlighten you on that one. I believe service has stopped due to ....irregularities, if its the same as a number of other welsh quarries.

Don''t get quarry tiles - check out mandarinstone.com instead!

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Does Kevin still live in the Norwich area. You might want to ask him about that drive, as a friend of the family took him in his car from Wrexham to Norwich, and from what I was told he was quite happy at Wrexham.

As a youngster I went to watch Wrexham a lot and have to say that Ken Barnes was a really good player and manager.

I gather Wrexham are in need of a striker, do you have one spare?

Barry

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Kevin Keelan lives in Florida now - selling contact lenses I believe. His daughter still lives in Norwich though.

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