Sunday 6 March 2011

Number 8: football at NCFC

I am almost ashamed to admit this one...

Despite having grown up in Norwich and lived here for a fair part of my adult life, I have never seen the local guys play. I have been to business events at Carrow Road and been caught in matchday traffic more times than I care to remember, but somehow managed to avoid a match itself.

Yesterday, courtesy of the vast generosity of the lovely Karen, I had a seat in the Jarrold stand for the Norwich vs Preston match.

First impressions - it was smaller than I expected. My last stadium experience was see The Police at Twickenham which is just h-uge.  At NCFC, even though we were quite high in the stand, it all felt very close up. As an idea of scale, I could hear the goalie shouting and the green and yellow of Delia's scarf, whereas Sting may as well have been in a different county.

Second impression - I wouldn't want to be an away supporter. A lot of the songs (which you have no chance of catching ANY of the words to by the way, other than the occasional 'on the ball city') get yelled straight at them. 23,000 people bellowing your way can't be much fun.

Gaffes - I asked who the chicken was (it's a canary, the mascot - they are called the canaries for goodness sake), I joined in clapping with the away supporters once (we were sat near them and I was just following a lead - I stopped when I noticed it wasn't our corner), I got distracted when I realised you could see tiny people on top of the Castle and I found it hard not to watch the kindly grandad looking chap in front of me who got a bit sweary at critical moments.

Great fun though. A nice 52 in the bag!

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