Norwich City F.C.

Norwich City Football Club is a football club based in Norwich, England. They are known as the "Canaries" due to their yellow and green strip. From 1995 until 2004 the club played in the First Division of the Football League, but after winning the league championship under Nigel Worthington in 2003/04, they were promoted to the Premier League. They are in the Football League Championship as of the 2005/06 season, after suffering relegation.

History

The club was formed in 1902 and first played at Newmarket Road. They were ousted from the amateur game in 1904 for being a "professional" organisation and later the same year were elected to play in the Football League. They adopted the yellow shirts in 1907 Yellow was chosen as they had already adopted the nickname Canaries. Canary breeding was a popular hobby in Norwich and Norfolk at that time, contrary to some suggestions, the canaries were not bred for use in mining - since there are no mines anywhere near Norfolk - they were bred purely as a hobby. One of the early managers partook in this hobby and often refered to his players as his canaries. The name stuck and so the shirts were changed from blue to yellow. In 1908, the club moved to a new home, in a converted disused chalk pit in Rosary Road which became known as "The Nest".

Related Topics:
The Football League - 1907 - 1908

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By the 1930s, the ground capacity was proving insufficient for the growing crowds and in 1935 the club moved to its current home in Carrow Road. The original stadium being terrace on three sides with only one stand (along Carrow road) having wooden bench seating and a roof.

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One of the club's greatest achievements was its run to the semi-final of the 1958–59 FA Cup as a Third division side, defeating First Division sides Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur on the way.

Related Topics:
FA Cup - Manchester United - Tottenham Hotspur

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In 1972, under manager Ron Saunders, Norwich City reached the First Division, for the first time in its history. The club won the Milk Cup at Wembley Stadium in 1985 - with Ken Brown as manager - defeating Sunderland 1–0 after a semi-final triumph over its near neighbours and fierce rivals, Ipswich Town.

Related Topics:
Ron Saunders - Milk Cup - Wembley Stadium - Sunderland - Ipswich Town

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Norwich were relegated shortly after their Milk Cup triumph in March 1985 and were also denied their first foray into Europe with the ban on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium disaster. They bounced back to the top flight immediately by winning the second division championship in the 1985-86 season. High league placings in the first division meant the club qualified twice more during the eighties for a UEFA Cup place, but the ban on English clubs remained.

Related Topics:
Heysel Stadium disaster - UEFA Cup

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In 1992–93, the inaugural season of the English Premier League, Norwich City led the league for most of the season, before faltering in the final weeks to finish third behind the champions, Manchester United, and Aston Villa F.C. The following season Norwich played in the UEFA Cup for the first time, defeating Vitesse Arnhem of the Netherlands 3-0 at home and drawing 0-0 away, and Bayern Munich of Germany winning 2-1 away and drawing 1-1 at home, before going down to Internazionale, 2–0, over two legs (H0-1, A1-0).

Related Topics:
Aston Villa F.C. - UEFA Cup - Vitesse Arnhem - Bayern Munich - Internazionale

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Mike Walker quit as Norwich City manager in January 1994, to take charge of Everton where he would be sacked after less than a year. He was replaced by 36-year-old first team coach John Deehan, who in his new role would be assisted by 34-year-old midfielder Gary Megson. Norwich City finished the 1993-94 season 12th in the Premier League and during the 1994 close season sold 21-year-old striker Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers for a then British record fee of £5 million.

Related Topics:
Chris Sutton - Blackburn Rovers

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By christmas 1994, Norwich City were seventh in the Premiership and looked good bets for a UEFA Cup place. But the club went into freefall and won just one of their final 20 Premiership fixtures, plummeting to 20th place and relegation in the final table. Just before relegation was confirmed, Deehan resigned as manager and his assistant Megson took over until the end of the season.

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Martin O'Neill, who had taken Wycombe Wanderers from the Conference to Division Two with successive promotions, was appointed as Norwich City manager in the summer of 1995. He lasted just six months in the job before resigning to take charge of Leicester City, following a dispute with unpopular chairman Robert Chase over money to strengthen the squad. Gary Megson was appointed Norwich manager for the second time in eight months, on a temporary basis. Megson remained in charge until the end of the season before leaving the club, while chairman Robert Chase also stepped down after protests from supporters who complained that he kept selling the club's best players and was to blame for their relegation. Indeed, between 1992 and 1996 Norwich offloaded key players including Robert Fleck, Jeremy Goss, Chris Sutton, Tim Sherwood, Efan Ekoku, Ruel Fox, Mark Robins, and Mark Bowen. Just four seasons after finishing third in the Premiership and beating Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup, Norwich had finished 15th in Division One.

Related Topics:
Martin O'Neill - Wycombe Wanderers - Leicester City - Gary Megson - Chris Sutton - Bayern Munich - UEFA Cup

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T.V. cook Delia Smith and husband Michael Wynn-Jones took over the majority of Norwich City's shares, and Mike Walker was re-appointed as the club's manager. But he was unable to repeat the success achieved during his first spell, and quit two seasons later with Norwich languishing around the middle of Division One. His successor Bruce Rioch lasted two seasons and departed in the summer of 2000, with promotion still yet to be achieved. Rioch's successor Bryan Hamilton lasted in the job for six months before making way for assistant manager Nigel Worthington.

Related Topics:
Delia Smith - Bruce Rioch

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When Nigel Worthington took over as Norwich City manager in January 2001, the club was 20th in Division One and in real danger of sliding into the bottom half of the league for the first time since the 1960s. But just 18 months later, Norwich qualified for the Division One playoff final and only a defeat on penalties against Birmingham City prevented them from gaining promotion to the Premiership. Norwich just missed out on the playoffs in 2002-03 but were crowned Division One champions at the end of the 2003-04 season. After nine years and six managers, Norwich City had returned to the top flight of English football.

Related Topics:
Nigel Worthington - Birmingham City

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Norwich spent the early part of the 2004-05 season struggling at the foot of the Premiership, and looked to be heading for early relegation. However, in January 2005 the club broke their transfer record when Dean Ashton (an England under-21 international) was bought from Crewe Alexandra for £3 million. Ashton quickly started scoring, and built up a exciting partnership with Leon McKenzie, in the process boosting the club's hopes of Premiership survival.

Related Topics:
2005 - Dean Ashton - Crewe Alexandra - Leon McKenzie

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Norwich set off on an unexpected run of form, beating the likes of Man Utd, Newcastle, Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic. However, the club had not managed to win away from Carrow Road all season. By the last game of the season, they found themselves one point above the relegation places, requiring a win to guarantee survival - a position few would have thought possible a few months earlier.

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With their fate in their own hands, Norwich travelled to Fulham, hoping for their first away victory of the season. It was not to be - the team sucummbed to a 6-0 drubbing and were relegated as other results did not go their way. The clubs supporters will be hoping for a quick return.

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Alas, the Canaries return to the Coca Cola Championship has not had the most auspicious of starts. Three successive home draws, followed by a defeat at the hands of a young and inexperienced, but, never-the-less, more eager Southampton side have led City fans to question both player selection and transfer policy with many calling for Worthington's resignation. This made the game away to local rivals Ipswich Town even more important should the Canaries desire to return to the Premier League. After a poor showing against Watford the week before the pressure was on and Norwich had to win. There were several key changes to the side, most notable was the dropping of captain Craig Fleming who many believe Worthington saw as his golden boy despite playing a role in many goals conceded during the last year. This meant that Norwich started the crucial game with loan siging Calum Davenport and Gary Doherty in the middle of defence. This lead to Norwich keeping the first clean sheet in a league game since the home match against Birmingham the previous season. With Darren Huckerby being introduced in the second half and providing the goal the Norwich fans craved after dominating the first ten minutes, Norwich finally won the first league game away from home for 16 months.

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Despite glitches, the feeling of optimism has remained and Norwich's victory over their old enemy seems to have helped them turn the corner on the road to success.

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