Chris Goreham: How Norwich City are making me feel old

I have the rapidly greying hair and the poor eyesight to prove it. 

Plenty of discussions have been taking place recently about the quality of atmosphere at Carrow Road on match days.  

It’s often suggested that the average age of the crowd is one of the reasons why it isn’t regarded as one of the league’s more intimidating grounds. Maybe Norwich City fans aren’t actually older than others around the country. They just look it thanks to the effects of a couple of decades on board the yellow and green roller coaster. 

Friday marked 36 years since my Carrow Road debut. I started young, thanks to my dad who was keen that I caught the Canary bug at the earliest possible opportunity. I was exactly four and a half years old and was apparently enthralled by a victory over Coventry City in the Full Members Cup. 

It’s not a game that would obviously go down in Canary history but it was more significant than you might think. There were two other, far more important, Norwich City firsts that night. Both Ruel Fox and Bryan Gunn made their first team debuts. 

The fact that Gunn’s son is now establishing himself as the new Norwich City number one only serves as another reminder of the relentless passage of time. Because of his family connections it’s still tempting to think of Angus Gunn as a promising youngster. However quite a lot of water has passed under Carrow Bridge since he was born. 

Gunn junior will be 27 in January. To put that in context he is closer in age to club captain and stalwart Grant Hanley than he is to young striker Adam Idah. 

Goalkeepers tend to peak later and often play to a more senior age. But even taking that into account it should be no surprise that Angus has, at least for now, taken the gloves from Tim Krul. 

In all those years as a Norwich City fan I can’t remember a closer battle to be considered first choice in between the sticks at the club. The Canaries have a proud family tree of goalkeepers from Kevin Keelan through to Chris Woods, Gunn senior, Robert Green and John Ruddy. If there is one thing that Carrow Road regulars can recognise it’s a good keeper. 

Angus Gunn was named as the club’s Player of the Month for October and deservedly so. He’s keen excellent in recent weeks and for now it’s difficult to see him losing his place in the starting XI. 

If there is an injury or a loss of form Dean Smith can still call on Tim Krul. Not many clubs in the Championship and probably one or two in the Premier League will have had a better goalkeeper on their bench at the weekend. It’s that depth of competition across the squad that is one of the reasons City fans feel justified to be disappointed by the side’s poor run of results during October. 

Until recently the Dutchman maintained hopes of going to one more World Cup but has fallen out of contention with the Netherlands at the wrong moment. 

Krul is a Carrow Road cult-hero, a star of two promotions and even Player of the Year during the first Premier League campaign under Daniel Farke. He was certainly busy that season and the penalty shoot-out heroics in the FA Cup at Tottenham just before the first Covid lockdown will never be forgotten. 

Tim Krul has been dropped in favour of Angus Gunn in recent weeks (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images)

Krul is 34-years old, which in football terms makes a player something of a veteran. To those of us in our 40s he is still a young pup with plenty of life left in him. 

But we’ve had a few shocks to the system recently. The past few weeks have seen Andre Dozzell, Liam Delap, Dan Potts, Darnell Furlong and Freddie Woodman all play for the opposition at Carrow Road.  

“Of course, I remember his father,” I’ve found myself saying. I am a pocket full of Werthers Originals away from completely morphing into one of those flat cap wearing old boys that used to sit near us in the family enclosure when I was growing up. 

The recent game against Stoke City featured a cameo from substitute D’Margio Wright-Phillips. He’s the son of Shaun and the grandson of Ian Wright. That was a first, seeing a player whose grandad I could remember. It was a huge relief that he didn’t score with Angus Gunn in goal. 

The sentence “I remember seeing his grandad scoring past his father” is one that ought to entitle me to a free bus pass. 

Well done Lynn 

South Yorkshire 0-2 Norfolk. That was the official result on Saturday on what was a thoroughly satisfying afternoon. 

While commentating on Norwich City’s hard-fought win at Rotherham I was very keen for updates on how King’s Lynn Town were doing on FA Cup first round day a few miles down the road at Doncaster. 

Finally, towards the end of the game, my colleagues back in Norfolk shouted into my headphones. “There’s been a goal in the Lynn game.” I handed to Nick Bowler with a sense of anticipation. Or at least a pretend one because, to be totally truthful, I had heard the commentator from BBC Radio Sheffield who was sat behind me give out the score a few seconds earlier. 

Tommy Widdrington celebrates King's Lynn's FA Cup first round win over Doncaster (Image: Ian Burt)

It was a brilliant win for the Linnets. 

Results like that will always make the headlines but it was no fluke. I took a midweek trip to The Walks on a night off a couple of weeks ago and saw them beat Banbury 3-1 in National North. 

It was a terrific game. Non-League football has certainly progressed over the years. The days of teams having at least one or two ‘big lads’ who perhaps had the skills but the not the discipline to make it in the professional ranks have gone. 

The atmosphere in the stand was good and even the tea was reasonably priced. The club has often felt like it deserves bigger attendances than it gets. With a World Cup on the horizon stopping Premier League and Championship action for a bit, now might be a good time to take in a non-league game near you. I’d definitely recommend it.