Milk Cup memories

[Michael Bailey - Sportsdesk 0]

We are putting together a package of articles to recollect City''s Milk Cup triumph in 1985 - 25 years ago this month.

Please share your memories of the Canaries'' run by emailing reporter Pete Walsh - peter.walsh@archant.co.uk

A selection will then be used in the Evening News next week.

Thanks all.

[dreamteam 0]

My memory is of finding that I was sitting next to a drunken Sunderland fan.

He had a bottle of whisky with him.

He slept through most of the game , then when he woke up and realised that Norwich had won, he just shook my hand and said well done.

[keelan for england 0]

Got married the day before,and as wedding had been booked never got Wembly,had to settle for watching on the telly.Never mind tuesday will be our silver wedding,and next year will be my golden year for going to Carrow road.No complaints with either.

[spencer 1970 214]

1. my "footy" granddad faining injury so i had to attend wem-ber-lee with my stepdad who was about as "footy" as the queen mum! When we scored he got the humpy as everyone jumping around knocked the sunday papers he was reading. So embarrased...will never forgive him...well, not until he bought me a car 5 years later!

2. seeing a bell-end driving a sinclair c5 as we walked to wemberlee....(thats true! not a stuart maconnie style "nostagia" story)

3. louie donowa dancing badly!

4. being the proudest kids in south east london wearing the ncfc flag as a cape the next day at school.

 

 

aaarrrrr

[Plastic Scouser 0]

Driving down the A11 following a Ford Transit "luton" style van - back door pulled up & about 10 blokes all sitting on deckchairs surrounded by crates of beer...Piling back onto the tube with the Sunderland fans & not a slightest hint of trouble, just a happy carefree fun day out.Listening back to the Radio Norfolk coverage of the day & dear old Uncle Roy''s commentary!

[Beauseant 0]

The thing that always sticks with me is how good the Sunderland fans were, both before and after. It was a wonderful day.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

They certainly were Beaus. I took my son, young Duncan was only six then (bless him!) and the Sunderland fan sitting in front of us turned round after the game and gave Dunc his scarf. He said "you won this son".

 

[dpit 1]

I was 20 and very excited. Crap match. The missed penalty was the best moment. Remember walking back to the tube thinking that the angels should be descending and that City fans should be in a state of sublime bliss. But it just felt like we''d beaten Sunderland 1-0.

[dpit 1]

I think the lack of responses here says a lot about the average age of messageboard users....it also makes me feel very old!

[Beauseant 0]

[quote user="dpit"]I think the lack of responses here says a lot about the average age of messageboard users....it also makes me feel very old![/quote]

 

Don''t worry, Brenda will be along shortly to tell us how pathetic we are!

I just can''t believe it''s almost a quarter of a century ago! I still remember so much about it, the walk to the ground, chatting with Sunderland fans as we all mingled to watch the team coaches arrive, standing in line with Asa''s shot, seeing it hit Chisholm and knowing it was going in, but seeming to take about a year to ripple the net, feeling like the world had ended when the ref pointed to the spot and then going mad when Walker missed it.

[The Butler 0]

One of the few times that City did not welch on a promise.

Great day out ended with all happy for once. The friendly final it most cetainly was.

No "plucky losers" we came away with some silver ware and well deserved.

 

[Trigger 0]

At the time I didn''t think much about it but a crowd of 100,000 to watch Norwich will surely never happen again. Sunderland fans were unbelieveable even when we went up the steps to get the cup they drowned us out. But we won at Wembley, and I saw it and it may never happen again!

[Lord Horn 0]

Apart from having a horrendous bout of flu but still going to Wembley, the outstanding memory of the day has got to be the friendliness of the Sunderland fans - I remember walking past that big pub near Wembley Park station which was packed out with Sunderland fans (both inside and out) and when they spotted me walking past in my City shirt and scarf they burst into a rendition of ''On The Ball City'' - great day, great atmosphere.

[Heresyourfathersgun 0]

[quote user="Trigger"]At the time I didn''t think much about it but a crowd of 100,000 to watch Norwich will surely never happen again. Sunderland fans were unbelieveable even when we went up the steps to get the cup they drowned us out. But we won at Wembley, and I saw it and it may never happen again![/quote]

Fabulous day. I was there in 73 and 75 as well. Since football was re-invented in 1992 how easy it is to forget that in the good old days the losing teams fans would respect the winners by staying to watch them lift the cup. How often now does a winner lift the trophy in front of a half empty stadium? Sunderland fans are very much like us - a one club town with passion for their team.

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,791]

Was at Uni in Brighton. Travelled up to Victoria Coach station on a coach full of tourists who didn''t have a clue why I sat on the bus with my Poll Withey shirt on. Got to Wembley had a fantastic day in amongst thousands of Canaries, and then had to travel all the way back to Brighton surrounded by people who didn''t even know there had been a game on. I tried to strike up some conversations on the bus but absolutely noone was interested. Billy No Mates! I celebrated that night in a Brighton pub, mainly in a sea of indifference, but I did drag some mates out who entered into it a bit. By the end of the night half the pub was singing We Love You Norwich. It cost me a fortune in Beer!

[Barclaybred 0]

Not involved but heard that there was 2 transit vans of norwich fans who traveled down on the saturday,day before the match,and finally found a bedn breakfast place,half booked in,16 or so and found out the bottom 2 floors were already full up with sunderland! Then when unpacked etc(as they hit the club scene round leicester square),the sunderland fans,who were of course already in the bar,teamed up with them and they all went clubing together..Then apparently in the morning,got to wembly about 10ish and started a kick about with the sunderland in the carpark ...I got told this when i was shown a eastern evening news photo of about 6 norwich lads at wembly outside,obviously very early as only a few fans in background,having their photo taken with the norwich lord mayor..and they were chosen as they were the only norwich fans there as the trains and coaches probably had only just left norwich!

[Heresyourfathersgun 0]

[quote user="Barclaybred"]Not involved but heard that there was 2 transit vans of norwich fans who traveled down on the saturday,day before the match,and finally found a bedn breakfast place,half booked in,16 or so and found out the bottom 2 floors were already full up with sunderland! Then when unpacked etc(as they hit the club scene round leicester square),the sunderland fans,who were of course already in the bar,teamed up with them and they all went clubing together..Then apparently in the morning,got to wembly about 10ish and started a kick about with the sunderland in the carpark ...I got told this when i was shown a eastern evening news photo of about 6 norwich lads at wembly outside,obviously very early as only a few fans in background,having their photo taken with the norwich lord mayor..and they were chosen as they were the only norwich fans there as the trains and coaches probably had only just left norwich![/quote]

True - mass kickabout before the game is part of the Friendly Final legend. The spirit continued in 92 in the semi final at Hillsborough

[I hate 1p5wich 0]

it was my ball what was used in the mass kick about in the car park , we got to wembley at about 12-30 am on the sunday morning . my mate had this ticket nicked form his coat but we got him another one. the sunderland lads where great . never played 200 a side football again . what a great day . even Lowestoft journal did a bit on him getting his ticket nicked lol. on the ball city

[Europe_93 50]

I remember the scarves banging on the window up the m4, the twin towers, meeting family, someone being passed overhead by supporters (too much for the poor fella) never found out what happened, the goal, the pen, Barham (that would have been goal of the century as I remember it), John Devine passing on instructions, the cup going up, brilliant Sunderland fans, the feeling of great pride. All for £13, I must save up!!!

[nutty nigel 7,902]

All these memories of 1985 are what actually happened. The car park game of football, the exchanging of souvenirs between rival fans. In fact friendships were forged with names and addresses swapped too. Christmas cards are probably still sent between Norwich and Sunderland fans to this day. That would be remarkable now but it was unheard of then. We are talking 1985 and hooliganism had a vice like grip on the game. So this Milk Cup Final was like a beacon in the darkness. A fact not lost on the National Media who named it "The Friendly Final". As I said earlier, I shared the day with my six year old son and the following week was just the best feeling in the world. We had the game on video tape with the Semi Final against scum and the celebrations after. We watched it over and over. It was great being a City Fan!

But just a couple of months later we had our hearts broken twice. And without wanting to put a damper on what is a celebration thread I can never think of that great day without remembering what followed. It wasn''t just winning the cup that we were celebrating 25 years ago. It was also the fact that we had qualified to play in Europe for the very first time. We were ecstatic and all the talk was about who we may play and how we were going to go wherever the first game was.

We were then relegated. We had finished our season on 49 points from our 42 games. we were 8 (EIGHT) points clear of relegation but Coventry still had three games to play. It was unthinkable that they would win all three to relegate us, but that''s what happened. The third of those games the hardest of all to take because they beat Everton (who had virtually won the title with a 3-0 win at Carrow Road a month earlier) 4-1! I have never forgiven Coventry and especially Everton since. But the saving grace was that we still had our first ever European campaign to come. But then just a few days later we watched the events of Heysel unfold on out TV''s and the red half of Liverpool and the blue half of Westminster had the final say on our season. Liverpool fans ran riot and Thatcher, at her dictatorial best, decreed that the FA should withdraw our clubs from Europe.

So in the end it was the proud Norwich City Fans, who had helped bring friendship back amongst the fans at the highest level in our national game, who were punished. And I suggest that punishment was greater than most if not all the other clubs. Altogether we qualified for Europe three times before that punishment was lifted.

Thank you Liverpool, Everton, Coventry and Thatcher[:|]

 

[Old Shuck 291]

1. Standing in a Fakenham car park at a time on a Sunday morning I didn''t think existed, waiting for the fleet of Sanders coaches to arrive...

2. Out side the ground at about 1:30pm, one of my friends who had gone separately walks up and says "hello", then another one-its funnier, the bigger the crowd, the more likely you are to find everyone in it you know-I can go into a pub with 5 or 6 other people in it, and completely miss the ones I am meant to be meeting!

3. The Red Devil skydiver crashing on the roof of the stadium and sliding off...

4. Greg Downs sitting at the BBC camera behind "our" goal and pretending to film us all, pre-match.

5. When Dixie beat David Corner and set up the goal, all these Norfolk voices (including mine) shouting "go-orn Dixie, skin ''im,,,g''arn'' G''ARNNNN...." -then pandemonium!

6. The Sunderland fans afterwards. Brilliant. One wanted to swap scarves, couldn''t do it....

7. Somehow, unfeasibly, walking out after the game and just finding, without even trying, our coach!

At the risk of sounding a right old ****, it were a "proper football" day-thankyou SO much Liverpool fans for ruining the reward.

[gaggers 0]

We lived in london at the time and didn''t manage to get tickets in advance. My dad took me up to Wembley in the hope of buying tickets outside the ground, in the end he bought 2 tickets at face value from a sunderland fan for the sunderland end. My dad was a bit embarassed at my reaction when we scored but the sunderland fans near us told him not to worry and just enjoy it.

[Mortz 0]

Driving to London the day before, Flicks nightclub in Dartford, sleeping in the car. 50 a side footie match in the car park before the game. Robbie Vincent giving us a shout on radio 1 on the way home. Sharing champagne and the biggest home made cherry pie with Sunderland supporters after the game was so surreal. But my fave memory of the milk cup was THE Brucie bonus goal against the scum in the semi final and the stewards shouting "we can''t hold em" as we invaded the pitch!! Happy daze.

[aitch 0]

There were seven of us,we went down in a transit van on the Sunday morning. Some of the guys had been involved in a big family wedding the day before and so brought what seemed like a million sandwiches, slices of cake, sausages on sticks and cans of beer that were leftover. We crammed into this van, three in the front and four in the back and started tucking in to the feast by the time we got to Wymondham. By the time we reached the North Circular we could barely move ourselves - all stuffed out with food. Had a great day at the match. Great feeling winning. When we got back to the van, still some food was left, so we picked at it again. The guy driving had relatives in Watford or Enfield or somewhere and had arranged for us to pop in for a cuppa on the way back. They had recorded the match on telly and we sat and watched it all over again. Then, just as we were thinking of making our way back up to Norfolk, the auntie announced she had made us some grub, knowing we would be starved after a busy day out !! She presented us with a full blown Sunday roast with all the trimmings ! We all looked at each each other, one guy turned a funny shade of green. We couldn''t face any more food in one day. But we really had to - out of politeness. I have never felt so ill on food in all my life. When we left at about 8.30 we struggled back to the van -  I swear I had gained two stone in weight. We got to a pub by the industrial estate in Thetford just in time to enjoy a couple of pints. So whilst everyone else refers to it as The Friendly Final we thereafter just just recalled it as ''the day we got stuffed - but won'' !