Tinpot

[Warren Hill 0]

Tinpot…

 

It’s funny how things get labelled. In my day things might have been “in” or “out”, “cool” or otherwise. More recently there have been terms lifted from reality shows, “reem” anyone?

 

It happens in football too. Glory hunters, plastics, prawn sandwich brigade and my personal favourite, tinpot. It seems to me that things get bracketed like this when people are looking for a stick to beat something or someone with. You could aim glory hunters, plastics and PSB at Manchester United for instance, fans across the globe, fans that have never been to Old Trafford and they certainly work the corporate angle, however, I’m not sure anyone would label the soon to be 20 times English League Champions as tinpot.

 

But I do hear it from our own fans about our own club. I heard it a lot in the lead up to the game on Saturday. It seems that we are a bit self conscious, worried about how others perceive us, like a teenager dancing at a school disco. Given the amount of things that could have been seen as tinpot prior to kick off on Saturday, I bet there were a few more of our fans than usual sporting bleary eyes, having spent the night before tossing and turning to the tune of Samba de Janeiro.

 

The clappers were tucked in the seats, the X-Factor judges walk –on music disappeared, replaced by We Will Rock You, the Youth Team did a lap of the pitch following their win against Forest to get to the FAYC final, we welcomed club legends onto the pitch, Eadie, Dublin and Huckerby, they stood together with the Youth team as the much maligned “Kick it off…” started a rousing rendition of On The Ball City.

 

And then it was time.

 

The crowd had been whipped up sufficiently and the players started like a steam train, Reading were like rabbits in the headlights as we created chances and shots flashed across goal. It was only a matter of time surely.. and it was. Turner got injured, a forced personnel change and for some reason it seemed to take the wind from our sails for a time. Reading found a foothold and started knocking the ball around with more purpose creating a chance or two of their own before the break.

 

Half time was met, widely, by applause and belief that we would get the job done, yet on the way down to the refreshment area I heard one Norwich fan bleat “What are they clapping for, that was sh*t?” and another stating in no uncertain terms that he advocated McNally relieving Hughton of his duties during the interval.

 

I wasn’t exactly carefree at half time, I was worried we’d had good chances and yet found ourselves 0-0 at the break with Reading coming more into the game.

 

Within a few second half minutes, calm was restored, clapping was acceptable again and McNally was rushing down to Kiln House to retrieve Hughton from the dole queue.

 

When we scored those two goals, you couldn’t hear the goal music. It was only when I heard it on the TV later that I was sure that they had played it.

 

Which brings me full circle. Our tinpot goal music, well I didn’t hear it, the atmosphere created by those tinpot clappers, the shameless use of club legends of the past to rouse the crowd, the shameless glorying of our youngsters success, getting them to start the tinpot choreographed On The Ball City. What must the Reading fans have thought?

 

I reckon they were silenced by the noise, jealous that we’ve had players like Eadie, Dublin and Huckerby on our Player of the Season roll, envious that we’ve got such a talented youth squad.  I reckon they were amazed at the noise of 25000 people all singing together, singing a song unique to our club, however much quicker we sing it now.

 

And that’s just it. The club got it absolutely spot on. Some people might think it’s small time to wheel out club legends, they might think it tinpot to celebrate reaching a final, they might find a choreographed singalong tinpot too. But when it was all put together on Saturday, it wasn’t embarrassing. We should be proud of the players we’ve had, we should be proud of the young players coming through, we should be proud that the oldest song in world football is ours and we’ve solved the goal music issue, if we make enough noise you can’t hear it!!

 

All in all, this is a fantastic time to be a Norwich fan, Premier League football, debt free, marquee signings, Cat 1 Academy, the future is bright, given our tumultuous past, I’m going to embrace it while I can.

[NWC 239]

Good post Warren."Mission Accomplished" by the club!!

[Stringers army 0]

League one to prem fairytale continues!

[lappinitup 629]

obvious binner is obvious.

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[Y] [Y] [Y]

[Ketts Rebel 0]

Fantastic post Warren. Some very good observations. For me, you have hit the nail on the head.

I thought Saturday was a great occasion. I think the vast vast majority of fans thought so aswell.

The thing I always remember about Forum''s - this one included, is that people are more likely to post when they have something to complain about. This can create a distorted view of the general opinion.

Some people just cannot let themselves go, they prefer to stand back and frown.

I am glad I am not one.

 

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

I''ve just sent off a strongly-worded letter of complaint to McNally. Some people in The Jarrold actually used those bl**dy annoying clapper things. 

[Ketts Rebel 0]

This is what one Reading fan thought (from the Hob Nob forum )............

Carrow Road is a great ground - one of my favs. The fans / stewards / general vibe about the place is always top notch.

 

[Warren Hill 0]

I thought that a lot of the Reading fans gave the youth lads a decent reception on their lap which was nice to see.

[Stevie G 0]

Good read mate

[Bury Yellow 2]

That was an enjoyable read Warren. I admit I was dreading those clapper things but the parading of the youth team and legends BEFORE the game was inspirational.

The atmosphere was excellent and it''s refreshing not to see the usual thread moaning about our lack of noise/support.