Norwich City 2013/2014

norwich-city-stadium

Norwich City quick review - season 2013/2014

Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. During the current 2012–13 season, Norwich City are playing in the Premier League, after finishing twelfth in the division in 2011–12.

The club was founded in 1902 and first won promotion to the Football League First Division in 1972. Since then, Norwich have played a total of 21 seasons in the top flight, with a longest continuous spell of nine seasons. Norwich have won the League Cup twice, in 1962 and 1985. They were founder members of the Premier League in 1992–93, finishing third in the inaugural season and played in its first three seasons, reaching the UEFA Cup 3rd round. Norwich most recently returned to the Premier League after a six-year absence.

Since 1935, Norwich have played their home games at Carrow Road and have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with East Anglian neighbours Ipswich Town, with whom they have contested the East Anglian derby 138 times. The fans' song "On the Ball, City" is regarded as being the oldest football song in the world.

While much of the support that the club enjoys is local, there are a number of exile fan clubs, notably in London and stretching from Scandinavia to countries further afield such as the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.

The fans' song, On the Ball, City, is the oldest football song in the world still in use today; the song is in fact older than the club itself having probably been penned for Norwich Teachers or Caley's FC in the 1890s and adapted for Norwich City. Although the first use of the tune and song is disputed, it had been adopted by 1902 and it remains in use today in part if not the whole.

Locally, much is made of the informal title "Pride of Anglia". Fans variously claim the title for either winning the East Anglian Derby, finishing highest in the league, having the better current league position, having the more successful club history or for reasons without any apparent logical basis. The club's main local rival is Ipswich Town. When Norwich and Ipswich meet it is known as the 'East Anglian Derby', or, informally, as the 'Old Farm Derby' – a comic reference to the 'Old Firm Derby' played between Scottish teams Celtic and Rangers. Over the 134 matches played against Ipswich since 1902, Ipswich boasts the better record, having won 45% of the matches to Norwich's 37%. In the 2010/11 season norwich played Ipswich twice in the league, winning 4–1 the first time and 5–1 the second time. Another commonly employed measure for "Pride of Anglia", and one that encompasses all of the East Anglian teams is to dub the side finishing as the highest placed East Anglian team in the Football League as the Pride of Anglia.

The club also maintains a healthy celebrity support with celebrity cook, Delia Smith and comedian Stephen Fry both having moved from fans of the club to running it. Actor Hugh Jackman is also a fan of the club, having been taken to Carrow Road as a child by his English mother, though he turned down an opportunity to become an investor in the club in 2010. BBC Sports Presenter Jake Humphrey, who was born in Peterborough but moved to Norwich with his family at the age of nine, is another celebrity supporter, along with Sky Sports Presenter Simon Thomas, who is Vice-President of the Norwich City Supporters Trust, and Norfolk-born musician, model and media personality Myleene Klass.

Ron Ashman holds the record for Norwich appearances, having played 592 first-team matches between 1947 and 1964. Ralph Hunt holds the record for the most goals scored in a season, 31 in the 1955–56 season in Division Three (South), with Johnny Gavin the top scorer over a career – 122 between 1948 and 1955. Mark Bowen holds the club record for most international caps, with 35 for Wales.

The club's widest victory margin in the league was their 10–2 win against Coventry City in the Division Three (South) in 1930. Their heaviest defeat in the league was 10–2 against Swindon Town in 1908 in the Southern Football League.

Norwich's record home attendance is 43,984 for a sixth round FA Cup match against Leicester City on 30 March 1963. With the introduction of regulations enforcing all-seater stadiums, it is unlikely that this record will be beaten in the foreseeable future.

The highest transfer fee received for an Norwich player is £7.25 million, from West Ham United for Dean Ashton in January 2006, while the most spent by the club on a player was £3.5 million for Robert Earnshaw from West Bromwich Albion in the same month.

The club's highest league finish was third in the FA Premier League in 1992–93. The 2012–13 season will be Norwich's 22nd in the top flight of English football. The club has won the League Cup twice (most recently in 1985) and reached the FA Cup semi-final three times, most recently in 1992. Norwich have taken part in European competition just once, reaching the third round of the UEFA Cup in 1993–94 and are the only British side to beat Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium.