Norwich beating Bayern Munich ruined my life (latest blog)

[Daniel Brigham 0]

By Daniel BrighamI was 11 when Norwich beat Bayern Munich. At that impressionable age you believe that things will forever stay the same: that you will always get six weeks during the summer to doss about and play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with your mates. That your mum will always have dinner on the table for you. That television will never get better than the A-Team.Likewise, Norwich’s European heroics set my generation up to assume we would forever be supporting a team chasing silverware and glory, a thrilling ride of startled Germans and volleyed winners against the best teams in the world. Life was going to be great. Well, that didn’t last long. 18 months later I was lying in a state of weepy depression on my sofa, listening to Roy Waller describe the last rites of Norwich City’s Premier League status against Leeds United (who, oh cruel world, just happen to be the team my dad and brother support). The following Sunday I was at Carrow Road for the last day of the season, the smug Aston Villa fans gleefully singing “we’ll see you again, don’t know where, don’t know when”. From the San Siro to Blundell Park in under two years. That short space of time was a huge lesson for my generation: life sucks. No, you won’t be able to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the rest of your life. No, you won’t support a football team that makes John Motson go all cross-eyed with excitement. Instead you’ll have to learn long division, talk to terrifying girls and support a team slowly fading from national awareness. From everyone’s favourite to also-rans, we had become the Pat Sharpe of the football league. You could see evidence of our decline everywhere. In the early 1990s every kid in Norfolk appeared to support Norwich. At football practice nearly everyone would turn up in green and yellow. But the more time spent in the Championship, the more you would notice alien kits on the streets of the city. Predictably they were mostly the colour of Manchester United, then came the Arsenal and Chelsea invasion. It felt like the city had lost its football identity.  But as Norwich lurched from mediocrity to disaster, from Rioch to Roeder, we always had Bayern Munich. We always had Jeremy Goss, stamping his place in history and taking a team of verve and flair with him. Whenever a British club travelled to face Bayern we would bore everyone with tales of 1993, like Uncle Albert bringing up the war. With a sense of nerdish pride we would nod approvingly whenever the commentator reeled out the usual “Only one English team have triumphed in Europe against Bayern Munich, and their identity will come as a surprise to you.” Well, we weren’t surprised, and through the gloomy days and years it was something tangible to hold on to. Norwich City, from the enclave of the wild east of England, a team of neat, cultured players but few stars, had once outplayed and beaten Bayern Munich, from the mighty, cultural heartland of Germany, a team used to dominance, led by all-time great Lothar Matthaus. Its magnificence never diminishes. As much as our preoccupation with that night might amuse Ipswich Town fans, as much as it might bore work colleagues of a non-Norwich disposition, we don’t care. We’ll keep on celebrating it for what it really is: an achievement worthy of enormous respect. After all, how many clubs of our stature can boast a similar romantic tale against world-class competition? Coventry beat Bayern Munich in the home leg of their European tie in 1970-71; the trouble was they’d already been spanked 6-1 away. Portsmouth drew at home with Inter Milan in 2008-09. Burnley beat Napoli in 1966-67. Roy Hodgson’s Fulham thrashed Juventus 4-1 to overturn a 3-1 defeat in the first leg three years ago. These night are rare; these nights should be savoured. Even 20 years on, watching Goss’s goal still electrifies me, rivalled in the goosebumps stakes by very few moments: Steve Harmison’s winning wicket at Edgbaston in the 2005 Ashes; Simeon Jackson’s shinning it in against Derby; Michael Owen’s go-karting goal against Argentina; Britain’s coxless four at the 2000 Olympics.So maybe things didn’t turn out like my 11-year-old self had hoped. There have been no more European adventures, TV has got better than the A-Team and now Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seems like the weirdest thing to have ever been commissioned by a TV executive (giant turtles? who do ninja? who speak like surfer dudes? who love pizza? who are named after renaissance artists? whose father is a giant robe-wearing rat?). But, after all of that and even if Norwich beating Bayern Munich did ruin my life, it was worth every single second. Daniel Brigham is Features Editor of The Cricketer.Follow him on Twitter: @cricketer_dan

[Tim Dawson 0]

Great piece, really made me laugh

[Brighton Yellow 0]

You''ve expressed my feelings / experiences over the past 20 years perfectly. Nice work!

[Jonzey 0]

I remember a few kids starting to wear Blackburn shirts in the mid nineties after they won the league. Glory hunting is a strange thing.

Anyway, entertaining stuff Daniel. Thanks for posting.

[Daniel Brigham 0]

I don''t remember any Blackburn tops but I do remember a kid from the year above telling people he was Brian Kidd''s son. He wasn''t.

[crispeduk 282]

Great piece - right now it makes me feel ''bugger the revenue'' let''s go for it and yes, I do still believe this season is an opportunity to have a punt for it. Sadly when tonight''s beer wears off I''ll know Mr McNally''s more measured, more realistic, assessment is right, because when it does come round again (and it will), this time there''ll be a chance of it being sustainable. But I don''t want to be kept waiting like England have kept us all waiting since 1966 - I was at school in Lynn then and would have laughed if someone said we wouldn''t even stage it again, never mind win it until after I got my bus pass.

[jedi 0]

That lad who claimed to be Brian kidd''s son was my cousin!! And your right he wasn''t.

[ricardo 7,331]

How fortunate I am that my 11 year old self watched a terrible season in  Division 3 South with a 26 game win-less streak and an application for re-election to the League after finishing stone last in 1956/57. Couple that with the club only being kept in business by Eastern Counties Newspapers paying the wages bill and the Lord Mayor Arthur South''s appeal raising 25K.It''s easy to see why I think that everything that followed has been a bonus.[:D]

[Brighton Yellow 0]

I had a mate who started to support Blackburn and said it was only to follow Sutton. He was not a Blackburn fan for long...

[im spartacus canary 0]

ricardo you seem to wallow in how miserable a time you have had supporting norwich  , it reminds me of the monty python four yorkshireman sketch  [:D] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

In my day we''d have been happy with a 26 game winless streak...

[ricardo 7,331]

[quote user="im spartacus"]ricardo you seem to wallow in how miserable a time you have had supporting norwich  , it reminds me of the monty python four yorkshireman sketch  [:D] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo[/quote]Yes, but it gives me a sense of reality that those brought up only on the good times sadly seem to lack.

[im spartacus canary 0]

26 game winless streak ? we used to dream of that ! when i watched them things were so bad our wing half had to play with ricketts , the centre half was bowlegged and got nutmegged 6 times a game and the keeper only had one arm having lost his other arm being shot down in a bombing raid over germany during the war... things were so bad that the woman in the kiosk had one tea bag in the urn for the entire south stand and we had a raffle for the only wagon wheel.. we used to have to seek re election to stay in the anglia combination every season for 10 years... and after every defeat my father would be so angry he''d take a belt to me and my 10 brothers and then spend all the housekeeping down the pub to drown his sorrows so we all went hungry... so don''t come to me with your 26 game winless run , you don''t know your born [:D]

[The Butler 0]

[quote user="im spartacus"]26 game winless streak ? we used to dream of that ! when i watched them things were so bad our wing half had to play with ricketts , the centre half was bowlegged and got nutmegged 6 times a game and the keeper only had one arm having lost his other arm being shot down in a bombing raid over germany during the war... things were so bad that the woman in the kiosk had one tea bag in the urn for the entire south stand and we had a raffle for the only wagon wheel.. we used to have to seek re election to stay in the anglia combination every season for 10 years... and after every defeat my father would be so angry he''d take a belt to me and my 10 brothers and then spend all the housekeeping down the pub to drown his sorrows so we all went hungry... so don''t come to me with your 26 game winless run , you don''t know your born [:D]
[/quote]

You had a south Stand!!

You southern pansy

[ricardo 7,331]

[quote user="im spartacus"]26 game winless streak ? we used to dream of that ! when i watched them things were so bad our wing half had to play with ricketts , the centre half was bowlegged and got nutmegged 6 times a game and the keeper only had one arm having lost his other arm being shot down in a bombing raid over germany during the war... things were so bad that the woman in the kiosk had one tea bag in the urn for the entire south stand and we had a raffle for the only wagon wheel.. we used to have to seek re election to stay in the anglia combination every season for 10 years... and after every defeat my father would be so angry he''d take a belt to me and my 10 brothers and then spend all the housekeeping down the pub to drown his sorrows so we all went hungry... so don''t come to me with your 26 game winless run , you don''t know your born [:D][/quote]LOLThe old jokes are the best.When we finally won (Millwall 2-0) there was a stunned silence in CR. Then we went and won 5-4 at Shrewsbury.[:D]After those dizzy heights things returned to normal and we only won one of the next ten.Can you imagine this Forum if we went through that sort of run again?

[im spartacus canary 0]

Pansys ? tell that to the then chairman who during one particularly bad season when attendances dropped below the 200 mark, had to sell part of  his liver to a member of the aristocracy with a drink problem just to stave of administration. There was no parachute payments in them days  but we were happy [:D]

[QHcanary 0]

"I remember a few kids starting to wear Blackburn shirts in the mid nineties after they won the league."

I know a couple of lads, Norwich born and bred, who still support Blackburn to this day. It was always o vinous why they did, but I think they''ve kept it up because we''ve done nothing but give ''em hell for the last 18 years.

I suppose you have to give them some credit for their sheer, bloody minded determination in the face of withering, unrelenting piss taking.

[QHcanary 0]

Oh, nice blog BTW. Enjoyed it.

[damn that Ralph Coates! 47]

memories....

missed my child''s first steps whilst watching City v Inter Milan in the next round, and never been allowed to forget it.....