Carrow Road: Norwich City 1-0 Middlesbrough

Thursday 20 September 2018

Norwich City 1-0 Middlesbrough

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 8/10

Ease of getting there : 7/10

Atmosphere : 7/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 5/10

Quality of the game : 5/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 4/10

Legroom : 7/10

Surrounding area : 8/10

Overall : 67/100

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Norwich City 1-0 Middlesbrough

It is over 10 years since my last and only visit to Carrow Road when both Norwich City and Leicester City battled out a goalless stalemate, the same season that saw the away side plummet into League 1/third tier of English Football for the first time in their history.

When Adrian’s friend and co-worker Stewart who is a Season Ticket holder at Norwich City told him he was missing two matches, we jumped at the chance to visit Carrow Road. Adrian saw their match against Leeds United during the bank holiday weekend whilst I decided to take up the offer of Middlesbrough at home. With it being over 10 years since my last visit and never visiting the city of Norwich, I (Ross) was rather looking forward to my visit to East Anglia.

I started my journey east at 8.30am heading for Leicester before joining the A47 which funnily enough took me all the way to Norwich. On my way to the city of Delia, Stephen Fry and Alan Partridge (Ah ha!), I planned to visit a few non-league grounds. The first non-league ground of the day was Peterborough Sports who at the time of writing this are playing in the Evo-Stik League Division One Central. With the ground being locked up, I took photos from various accessible points and then made my way back onto the A47 to my next stop of the day.

Wisbech Town who play at the Fenland Stadium are currently in the Evo-Stick Northern Premier League Division One East. The ground is situated on the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk border. After a quick chat with the groundsman turned chairman, I hopped back into my car and on the A47 to my next stop.

Perfectly located just off the A47 is Dereham Town who play at Aldiss Park currently plying their trade in the Bostik (Isthmian) League Division One North. With the ground locked up, I took the opportunity to take a few photos over the fence before bumping into a group of Boro fans who started walking into the town of Dereham (the opposite direction to Carrow Road in Norwich!).

I continued driving along the A47 towards Norwich before coming off at Thackham Park and Ride where I took the bus into the city centre. With time on my side and having never visited the city centre before, I decided to explore the city of many stories starting off at the Castle which stands tall looking across the city. I continued exploring the centre by visiting the beautiful Royal Arcade, Tombland and the Cathedral.

The riverside in Norwich has been redeveloped over recent years and now offers many bars and restaurants to choose from. I chose to stop for lunch at a Chinese buffet restaurant called the Riverbank which was full of Norwich fans enjoying their pre-match meal.

Once I was well and truly full, I made the short journey to the ground where the atmosphere was already beginning to build.

This end of the ground, closest to the River Wensum, was originally known as the "River End", a name that still persists among fans. An old stand was demolished in April 1979 and a two-tiered replacement was completed in December 1979. The stand was officially named the Norwich & Peterborough Stand in the 1990s, after a sponsorship deal with the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society. An extra 160 seats were installed in the summer of 2010. The stand was renamed the Regency Security Stand after a deal with Regency Security, the current security firm of the club.

The Barclay is named after Captain Evelyn Barclay, a former vice-president of the club, who donated the cost of roofing the original stand. This was built in 1937, but demolished in 1992, when a new two-tier structure, modelled on the River End was built in accordance with the recommendations of the Taylor Report.

Local brewers Woodforde's Brewery were announced as the stand's sponsors in June 2018.

The single-tiered Geoffrey Watling City Stand was built following a severe fire in its ageing predecessor on 25 October 1984. The fire was apparently caused by an employee of the club leaving a three-bar electric fire switched on overnight.

The City Stand (as it was named at the time) cost £1.7 million to build and was used for the first time on 30 August 1986 when City hosted Southampton. It was formally opened by the Duchess of Kent on 14 February 1987. The stand was renamed in honour of Norwich City president Geoffrey Watling, who died in 2004, aged 91. The stand has the lowest capacity of the four; it also houses the directors' box, the press area and hospitality suites. Where The Barclay extends around to meet the Geoffrey Watling City Stand is the Thorpe corner infill, known to supporters as 'The Snakepit'.

The South Stand is on the site of the former South Stand, which was named in honour of Sir Arthur South. The new stand was partially opened for the game against Sheffield United on 31 January 2004, and fully opened for the next home match, a game versus West Ham. It was opened by Ken Brown, a former manager of both clubs.

From 2004 until May 2016 the stand was sponsored by Jarrolds, a local department store. It is a single-tiered stand of cantilever construction with a capacity of 8,212. From 2016, the infill where the hotel is situated a large rotating screen which allows fans in the South Stand and the Barclay Stand to see various video broadcasts relating to the club. The corner infill between the Jarrold and Norwich & Peterborough stands is called the Aviva Community Stand. It was built in 2005 and named after sponsors Aviva. It seats up to 1,700 fans, and also provides extensive facilities for disabled supporters.

Middlesbrough suffered their first Championship defeat of the season and conceded their first league goal since the opening day as Norwich prevailed at Carrow Road. The hosts had the better of a low-key first half but Boro had the best chance as Jonny Howson's turn and shot was well stopped by Canaries keeper Tim Krul.

Norwich took a deserved lead when Emi Buendia teed up Finland striker Teemu Pukki to poke in his fourth goal in five home games for the club. The visitors were unable to find a way past Dutchman Krul, who saved superbly from substitute Martin Brathwaite.

Victory gave Daniel Farke's Norwich just their second league triumph of the season, while Middlesbrough fell from second to fourth in the table after this maiden loss.

The Canaries were without captain Grant Hanley through injury but shut out their opponents and ended their run of five league clean sheets in a row, becoming the first team to score a second-half goal against Boro this term.

Summer signing Pukki continued his scoring streak, having netted winners in both of Finland's Nations League games over the international break.

Norwich - who have now alternated between a win and a defeat in their last nine home Championship games - have won their last four matches against Middlesbrough in all competitions without conceding.

After the match, I ran up the steep hill back towards the bus station to catch my bus. When I arrived, by chance the bus was waiting so I hopped on and it departed shortly after. Once I got back to my car, I joined the A47 which would eventually take me all the way back to Leicester following a brief stop at Eye Green for a McDonalds snack & drink and being diverted into Wisbech following an accident on the A47.

Overall, my trip to Norwich was a very enjoyable day out helped by the great weather and an entertaining match.

Norwich City 6-0 Scunthorpe United

I (Adrian) spent a couple of days in Norfolk with one of my mates.

In the morning we took in two visits, Wroxham and Norwich United who both play in the Ridgeon League.

We then ventured into Norwich City Centre for a liquid lunch with fellow chirpy Canaries. We visited a Wetherspoons pub by the River Wensum and another pub called the Nelson.

We entered the Stadium at approx 2.50pm, the atmosphere was already building. The lack of visiting support meant that Carrow Road was full of home fans bar about 375 visiting fans! I sat in the snake pit or rather stood! This area is a well known singing area at Carrow Road and is closely linked to the Barclay Stand.

Norwich City gained an early lead and the atmosphere was unrelenting throughout, in one of the most one sided matches I have ever seen. The home recorded a 6 0 win thanks to two hat tricks, from Grant Holt and sub Simeon Jackson. Scunthorpe under new manager Alan Knill were woeful and not helped by the sending off of Paul Reid in the first half. Norwich went 4 points clear in second place in The Championship with this result and the defeat of Swansea at Preston.

I stayed in Norwich on Saturday night, returning to the Midlands on Sunday evening.

Norwich City 0-0 Leicester City

With a couple of Hungarian recruits in Ian Holloway’s Leicester City side, we travelled across to Norfolk in good spirits, reliving their and the team’s performance in the previous home game against Coventry City.
I (Adrian) picked Ross up in Coalville and we drove into Leicester parking our car at the Walkers Stadium before getting on one of the clubs supporters coaches.
The journey to East Anglia entailed the M1 South, A14 across to Cambridge, where after a stop at the services we continued up the A11 towards Norwich.
We had sandwiches on the coach so when we parked up outside the away end at Carrow Road; we were ready for our walk around the ground.
This done we nipped into Morrison’s for use of facilities before walking towards our entrance.
A jobs worth steward refused us the opportunity of taking a picture of our stand through an open but guarded gate.
Carrow Road was purpose-built by Norwich City in 1935 with construction only taking 82 days. Previously, the club played at Newmarket Road and the appropriately named The Nest (With Norwich City's nickname being "The Canaries").

The stadium has been extensively worked on several times during its history, notably following a fire that destroyed the old City (now "Geoffrey Watling City") Stand in 1984. Having once accommodated standing supporters, since 1992 the ground has been all-seater. The ground's modern capacity is 27,033. The stadium's all-seater record attendance is 26,842 which occurred in the Premier League match versus Aston Villa on 4 May 2013, but in the days of standing terraces, it saw crowds as large as 43,984 when they played coincidently, Leicester City in an FA Cup match in 1963.
Ross’ first trip to Carrow Road yielded no goals but we were delighted with a point. Norwich was by far the better side and should have won. Lee Croft of Norwich caused young Joe Mattock endless problems down the wing and cover was not very apparent.
Leicester’s Hungarians were anonymous and the on loan keeper was forced to make several good saves. All-in-all, a point gained for the visitors.
Our journey back to Leicester was unlike any other.
The coaches were given no police assistance in leaving the city and an hour later we were still literally in the city centre, in a traffic jam.
Within half an hour of finally getting out of the built up area we encountered coach problems, smoke (or was it steam) was coming out of the toilet on board and the driver alerted that there maybe a fire on board.
All coaches then pulled into a large lay bye to survey the problem, we were asked to leave the coach and the rear engine examined by the drivers.
Eventually it was decided we should continue, we were losing water so an unscheduled stop was to be made at the Cambridge services on the A14.
Phone calls made to Leicester, replacement coach maybe? No
In the end after some maintenance and our stop for toilets we continued the increasingly long journey back to Leicester arriving back at 9:15pm.
From there our onward trip was a 20 minute car ride dropping Ross off and then I still had to drive an extra 22 mile back to Tamworth. A long day for Ross, a longer day for me and no goals to show for it! However most importantly for Leicester City fans a point gained! At least we didn't lose.