A longer wait than most Norwich fans, I suspect

I’m pretty sure I’ve recounted this story before, but I’m going to do it again – I had never seen City win anything.

OK, I’d seen them win plenty of games obviously. This season, especially. But not the big stuff.

I was too young to remember the 1985 Milk Cup final, although I have somehow procured a load of cuttings and souvenir programmes from it.

The two FA Cup semi-finals clearly don’t count. Even then, I can only remember my nan’s old black and white television telling the horrors of Hillsborough, and four years later hanging on to my lucky Norwich teddy as City failed to turn up at the same venue against Sunderland.

The Premier League campaign of 1992-93 was memorable, but came with little to go in the trophy cabinet; the Uefa Cup conquests likewise.

Of course, the Division One championship in 2003-04 should have been the one. After all, I had a season ticket and everything.

Except, in August I decided to a trip to India and Australia from April until June.

At the time – pre-signing of Huckerby, Crouch and Co – I reasonably assumed it would be unlikely Mark Rivers had enough to drive us to the Premier League.

As the season panned out I was more and more convinced of exactly how it would end. My last game, at Reading, settled it.

The trip was brilliant – and my dad did a sterling job of keeping me in touch with things, emailing me and recording everything on a video I’ve still got somewhere.

But it was all second hand.

And all that was until this season, when I was doing the Pinkun’s live coverage at The Valley and held a watching brief at Carrow Road on Saturday.

Working on it all as a journalist? In true clichéd tones, that is just a bonus. The joy was seeing them do it. A fantastic end to what has been, eventually, a fantastic season.

posted on 26 April 2010 14:23 byMichael Bailey - Sportsdesk

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