Why people don't use public transport

Norwich fans returning from West London last night after watching Brentford beat Norwich 2-1 suffered another blow after their train arrived home in Norwich at 6.35 am.

The train, which broke down twice, took more than seven hours to get them home turning the usual two hour journey in to the journey from hell.

How many football fans will drive instead of using the train in future ?

Please be nice to me

Those of you who have read my blog for some time will know that I am a season ticket holder at Carrow Road where I follow Norwich City, and that I have, since I was seven, been an Everton fan.

So after Norwich started the season last week losing 7-1, I was feeling a little bruised.

Imagine how I feel today with Everton losing 6-1.

So please be nice to me.

No "Views from the River End" Today thanks to Norwich's roads

Some of you will know that I have another blog which covers issues relating to Norwich City Football Club. Unfortunately, there will be little in the way of views for me today thanks to Norwich's truly awful road network.

Today, on my journey in to Norwich (only 7 miles to the car park than a one mile walk), the roads were gridlocked all around the northern part of the inner ring road meaning I moved about 80 yards in 40 minutes in one road and about 30 yards in 20 minutes on another road. The dawning realisation that it was likely to turn what should have been a journey of no longer than 20 minutes in to a 90 minute journey led me to do a u-turn and get out of Norwich and home (which actually took just 12 minutes).

If anyone has ever been to Norwich you will know what truly awful roads we have. They are designed to encourage road rage, constantly switching from two lanes to one lane, placing bus stops so as to stop traffic flow whilst the traffic light seems constantly to be breaking down.

Whilst the junctions I came to today that were snarled up did have working traffic lights, what was desperately needed was a policeman to direct traffic, stop people driving in to and stopping in yellow boxed areas (which is illegal anyway) , and use a human mind to sort out the problems that traffic lights cannot detect. Sadly, at each junction there was no policeman to be seen.

Then what do you think I saw pulled up by the side of the road on my way home ? I didn't see a speed gun in the police officer's hand, but it did make me wonder what the police were doing parked up in the countryside when Norwich was so snarled up.

My other blog - Views from the River End

I have found myself in recent weeks holding back from writing certain things on this blog. I am not referring to my political ranting, which will continue to be the focus of this blog, but my many thoughts and diatribes concerning Norwich City football club.


Many of you will know that despite my support for Everton, I am also a season ticket holder at Norwich, I go to occasional away games too and apart from when Norwich face the mighty blues, I am Norwich through and through. So in order to save those of you who look at this blog for my political views from having to wade through what might be too much Norwhc City related guff, I have started a new blog called "Views from the River End". It has this name in honour of the fact that I have always sat in that stand and despite Norwich City calling it the Norwich and Peterborough stand as a result of a sponsorship deal with that building society, it is and always remains "The River End".



I might occasionally write about football and sport and indeed Everton (who do qualify under those headings) on this blog, but all Norwich City related stuff will be on my new blog.



If you are a Norwich fan or simply like to read about Championship football, do please drop by. Also, if any other Norwch fans would like to contribute, please drop me a line.

No sense of justice in FA hearings

Norwich City Manager Glenn Roeder and his Assistant Lee Clark have been fined £1000 and £500 because of an incident on the touchline at the end of a match last year.

Just to fill you in on what the incident was, in the 94th minute of the match (a match which the referee had said there should only by three minutes of extra time - do the maths !), he awarded Bristol City a free kick for a handball. It was obvious to everyone in the ground that the handball was actually committed by a Bristol City player. The radio commentators (that I heard) saw it, the crowd saw it, even the fourth official who confirmed to the Norwich management team that it was the Bristol player who hand balled it saw it. From this freekick Bristol City scored.

At the end of the game (2 seconds later) the Norwich management team went to ask the referee why he had made the decision he did, why he did not check with his officials and why he played extra time on top of extra time in order to allow Bristol City to score. And for this they have been fined.

Forget that Norwich were denied the true result, forget that the referee made a terrible decision. You have to ask if the FA have any sense of natural justice.

Time for some Norwich City fans to grow up

Imagine a situation whereby two people stick £20 million of their £30million fortune in to a business. Basically, they have put two thirds of everything they own on the line to save what is a vloundering business which they know they will never get an investment return from.

Now imagine a businessman worth £1.7 billion comes along, he says he wants to stick £20 million in to that business but is not prepared to pay couple in full for the £20 million they invested in the business in the first place. Instead, he wants them to make a loss on the venture.

Then this very rich man withdraws his offer and lets the customers of this business hound the couple through the media in an attempt to make their lives so miserable that they will sell for a loss and people will forget the enormous debt they are actually owed.

Now put this in to context.

As I see it Michaee Wynn Jones and Delia Smith saved Norwich city from going to the wall several years ago. The club was minutes from being closed down by the banks and they, along with many others, saved the club. Since then Norwich have relied on Delia's money and Delia's name in order to keep going whilst Delia and her husband pour millions on to the club, in fact two thirds of their money, in order to keep the club going.

Then along comes Peter Cullum, a man worth £1.7 billion. Now he does not want to spend two thirds of his money on the club. He claims he wants to invest £20million as a cash injection in to the club BUT does not appears to want to pay Delia and her husband back the full value of their shares (and significant loans). Instead, this very rich man wants Norwich on the cheap.

Now Norwich fans are hounding Delia and her husband thorough the press, they are trying to make her feel pressured in to selling and forget that she has invested most of everything she owns in the club when others failed to do so. These fans want Delia to sell, at any cost to her, and knowing she will not get back all her money, because a very rich man wants to put a tiny amount of his money in to the club.

Really, some Norwich fans should be ashamed of themselves.

The Peter Cullum Conundrum

Norwich fans have been getting rather excited recently about the prospect of a takeover by Peter Cullum, Britain's 40th richest man. He told the local press in Norwich that he wanted to take over as majority shareholder from Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones, in return for sticking £20million in cash in to the club.

Today, the whole deal fell through, no doubt with lots of gnashing teeth and people complaining about Delia for good measure. But there is a really big question mark over what Mr Cullum wanted and what he actually was prepared to do.

In the first instance, he wanted to take over as majority shareholder from Delia. Delia's shares are worth more than £10 million for starters, so how would he pay Delia £10million and still put £20 million in to the club ?

The board at Norwich City have stated time and again that they are prepared to issue new shares in order to raise money. Why wasn't he prepared to just buy £20 million worth of shares so the club could instantly have £20 million ?

There are other business people in Norfolk who have used their money to help the club out. Delia, of course, stands out, but last year another couple simply loaned the club £2 million, interest free, in order to help the club out. Why, if he loves the club so much, was this option not pursued ?

The problem is that Mr Cullum has been issuing statements through the press but does not actually appear to say very much. As a Norwich City season ticket holder, i am in the dark. perhaps he did offer to do all those things, but at the moment I am happy to stay with Delia and Michael Wynn Jones. They may have a just a few million compared to Mr Cullum's £1.7 billion, but they put their cash up to help the culb out time and again with little chance of any financial benefit from it. So far Mr Cullum appears to me to be a rich man trying to steal Norwich City on the cheap.

The agony and ecstacy of football

I was reminded today in the beautiful sunshine of a not too dissimilar day three years ago when I travelled to London with my then girlfriend (now my wife) to watch Norwich City at Fulham on the final day of the season, For all those who do not remember the 2004/2005 season, Norwich just needed a win on the final day in order to stay in the Premier League. Norwich had, just a few weeks before, seemed doomed to go down, but a string of excellent wins, particularly a 2-0 win against Manchester United saw Norwich reach the edge of survival by the start of May.

So it was with great hope that we travelled with 5,000 other Norwich fans to South West London. Many Norwich fans travelled without tickets and we were offered £250 each for our tickets outside the ground by some ticketless Norwich fans, but it didn't turn out heads. We were there to see Norwich stay up and would be able to talk about this day for years to come.

So what was the result ? Norwich lost 6-0. Something of a travesty in many ways, Norwich were the match of Fulham in the first half and at 0-0 had a clear penalty disallowed whilst Fulham then scored their second goal from a free kick just before half time when the Norwich player had committed no foul. That said, at least they went down in style.

So I have a lot of sympathy today for the fans of Reading and Birmingham who suffered in many ways a worse fate than Norwich by winning their matches only to miss out on staying up because of Fulham winning 1-0 at Portsmouth.

As a neutral looking on today, I was slightly pleased to see Fulham stay up. Their manager, Roy Hodgson, is an absolute gentleman in the way he conducts himself and if anyone deserves success it is him. Also I remember the way Fulham fans treated us after the 6-0 defeat three years ago and they were nothing but charming.

Sadly the only bad thing about Fulham staying up is seeing Mohammed Al Fayed with a smug grin on his face. Despite wanting to see Fulham succeed today there was also a part of me that wanted to see them go down just so Al Fayed could try and pin the blame for it on MI6, the Press and Prince Philip !

P.S. I should also mention that Everton came 5th and secured a UEFA cup place next year. Well done Everton. 6th last year, 5th this year, Champions League qualification beckons next year.

I had to share this

I found this on the Wrath of the Barclay, a discussion board site dedicated to Norwich City (the Barclay being the noisiest stand in Carrow Road).

Given my views on Konnie Huq from last week, I thought this was vaguely topical.

There was a 'celeb' called Huq

Who got into a bit of a ruq

For carrying the flames

And supporting the Games

But for Tibet she gave not a fuq

Other stories people are reading on Norfolk Blogger include :

- Why should the BBC help ISP's upgrade their networks ?

- New London Poll has Johnston ahead of Livingstone

- Hillary in Bosnia - The spoofed YouTube video

Do footballers care about their team as much as the fans do ?

Listening to football phone ins on the radio, you always hear fans berating their team's players for appearing not to care about the team and lacking pride. The radio presenters are always quick to come in with a comment that they know that "the players really do care", but sometimes you have to wonder.

Last weekend, a friend of mine went to Sheffield to watch Norwich against Sheffield United, a game which Norwich rather tamely lost 2-0. For this friend of mine, it darkened his mood, ruined his weekend and meant he didn't as planned, go out on Saturday night upon his return, preferring instead to stay in at home.

So it was in contrast to this that I overheard someone at the gym today telling his friends how he was out on Saturday night with two Norwich players (both defenders) and what a great time they had had and they "didn't seem worried about the result that day".

It seemed in marked contrast to my friend's mood. I guess the difference is that he is a fan, and they are just players being paid, essentially, by the fans.

I don't expect that footballers should live the life of a nun, but I was impressed, a few years ago when I worked with someone who had a relative playing for Peterborough, to hear that the Peterborough supremo Barry Fry banned his players from being out "on the town" in Peterborough, if the team lost. I don't know that it changed their form or the effort they put in, but it at least sent a message to the fans.

In honour of Lee Probert - Britain's worst ref ?

A few months ago I had the bad luck to witness one of the most inept refereeing performances ever from a referee who really never ought to be able to show his face on a football pitch again. his name is Lee Probert. However, in typical style, after a series of bad performances and inept decision making, and I highlighted the incompetence he showed in a Norwich game versus Derby County last March, he was deemed bad enough by the Premier League to become a Premiership referee (although he still does Championship games).



I was pleased to see though that someone had gone to the trouble of doing something about Mr Probert on YouTube, in honour of his appalling decision making last March. I enjoyed, I guess many other Norwich City season ticket holders would enjoy it, but if you are not a Norwich fan, it may only be of passing interest, but remember the name. Mr Probert could be wrecking a game near you soon.

Is there any better way of having as much fun with your clothes on ?

I have to say, despite their low position in the Championship, despite the cold and wet weather, and despite all the trials and tribulations at Norwich City Football club in recent months, I could not have had more fun than I did yesterday at the Norwich vs Sheffield United match.

On other more sunnier days I might have believed my enjoyment owed much to the pre match visit to the bar, but on as grotty a day as I had yesterday hot chocolate was very much the order of the day. But no, my enjoyment yesterday was of watching two almost completely British teams playing real blood and guts football, with no quarter given, in torrential conditions, refereed by a good ref, with a real effort from both teams to get the football down and play passing football.

Yes, Norwich won, and of course that makes the enjoyment all the better, and when Sheffield United had a goal disallowed in the 90th minute it was even more exaggerated joy and relief. However, it was absolutely enthralling throughout and a great advertisement for why nearly 25,000 people go and watch Norwich every home game come rain or shine, come Premiership or bottom of the Championship (as they were recently).

Glenn "Carrow" Roeder - Leading Norwich to the play offs ?

The Eastern Daily Press have produce a great psoter to "download and print" to put in people's windows. It features new Norwich manager Glenn Roeder who, if nothing else, has got Norwich playing good footbal again and won three of this last four matches Norwich have played.

I just thought I'd share it with you.

A record still held by Norwich City

Well done to Bolton Wanderers for getting a 2-2 draw tonight away against Bayern Munich. However, it leaves a record intact for Norwich City as Norwich remain the only English team ever to have beaten Bayern Munich away from home.

In 1993 Norwich defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 away in the UEFA Cup, with one of the goals being an absolute stunner from Jeremy Goss. I remember watching the game on Eurosport and was shocked by the extent of Norwich's injury woes that night, yet they still beat a Bayern side featuring half the German international side from the 1990 World Cup.

The satisfaction in seeing (some) players who leave your team fail

It is a difficult thing for any football fan to see their ex heroes pulling on the shirt of another team, but in some cases there is a certain smug satisfaction in seeing certain players fail miserably after they have demanded and got the move they have craved.

At Norwich, we have something of a history of seeing players leave to go on to supposedly better things. But what defines the reception they receive when they return playing for the opposition or the way the fans speak of them on the terraces is based very much on the manner of their leaving.

Take for example Craig Bellamy, who started his career at Norwich, didn't publicise his wish to leave, didn't make use of "release" clauses, didn't leave the team high and dry, and as a result, he is still applauded whenever he has played at Carrow Road. Another example is Robert Green, who had the chance to leave earlier, but played out a whole season with Norwich in the Championship after the club was relegated because he wanted to do his very best to see if he could help Norwich go up. You won't find a Norwich fan with a bad word to say about him after he left to go to West Ham.

Then there are the one's who you cannot help but dislike. Dean Ashton, is one such example. He barely stayed at the club for 12 months, seemed desperate to leave the club and take the easy option of joining a Premiership team rather than playing hard for Norwich to ensure that Norwich were a Premiership team, and appeared to let it be known that he wanted to leave. His name is still dirt in Norwich.

Joining Dean Ashton though, and perhaps the one that Norwich fans are taking particular delight in at the moment is Rob Earnshaw. When he joined Norwich he had a clause inserted in to his contract meaning the club were obliged to sell him in for a fixed price meaning the club was unable to make any money on the deal.

So it is with great relish that Norwich fans, despite being bottom of the Championship like to make mention at every opportunity of the fact that Earnshaw has, for Derby, not scored a goal all season. So well done to Rob Earnshaw again today for another clean sheet !

Peter Grant leaves Norwich

I feel sorry for Peter Grant upon his leaving Norwich City Football Club this evening after an abysmal run of results for the club.

Grant inherited a squad last year with many problems and with little opportunity to really delve in to the transfer market, he seemed to have turned the club around last year. This season, despite plenty of new signings, he has, to put it bluntly , been very let down by some of the senior professionals at the club. In particular Darren Huckerby ought to hang his head in shame for the lacklustre way he has performed in recent weeks.

In truth, Peter grant probably had to go. He had, apparently "lost the dressing room", and the regular 24,000 who turn up every week were not really behind him any more. The statement on the club website showed a great amount of dignity from Peter Grant, and unlike Nigel Worthington who seemed to drag Norwich down further and further each week with months of appalling results when he was in charge with Worthington insisting he could turn it round, Grant has accepted that him staying was unlikely to have this effect.

I personally wish Peter Grant nothing but good luck in the future and hope he has a job back in football soon.

The Norwich City Muppets Youtube Video they are all talking about

This new YouTube video even made the local news this evening, and the first half of it, the bit featuring the Muppet Show really is very good indeed.

I am just hoping Norwich can avoid playing like a bunch of Muppets tomorrow when I go to the match against Sheffield Wednesday.

Lord preserve us from Lee Probert

After witnessing referee Lee Probert serve up possibly the most inept displays of refereeing last year, I was surprised but slightly relieved to see that he had been promoted to the Premier League list of refs. However, after only a few games and a number of Premier League howlers Lee Probert is back at Carrow road this afternoon.

Already a terrible refereeing mistake has led Crystal Palace nearly scoring and we have only been going two minutes. Lord preserve us from the awful Lee Probert.

Update : What can i say about the refereeing display in hindsight ? Lee Probert is a referee obsessed with his whistle. At one point he raised his whist to his mouth three times in 10 seconds, but each time the players played on, not a fuss, not a dive, not a hint of them feeling they had been fouled. In the end, he blew his whistle for something nobody on the pitch saw, and the overwhelming feeling was that he blew it just so he could feel important. Lee Probert comes very much from the "if someone falls over they must have been fouled" school of refereeing, which any player, even at a Sunday morning pub league level (like myself) knows to be utter rubbish, which by strange coincidence, was the best way I could describe Lee Probert's performance today.

The booking of a Norwich player for celebrating his first ever goal for the club summed up Lee Probert's game. Heaven preserve us from players showing passion Mr Probert.

Well done Mr R Booth of Nottinghamshire

After the abysmal refereeing of last week from Mr Lee Probert, surely the worst referee I have ever seen, we went from the ridiculous to last night's sublime refereeing of Mr R Booth.

Norwich won 1-0, but I never had cause to question the referee or his decision making. He allowed the game to flow, he talked to players to calm situations down, he was loathe to use cards, and he made sure we remember the game, not the football.

I guess we'll never see Mr R Booth again. Referees like him NEVER get promoted !

Let me make my opinion clear : Referee Lee Probert is incompetent

I think the headline makes it clear what I think of Lee Probert personally. My opinion is based on watching Norwich play Derby County this evening, a game won by Derby, thanks to two great goals and a referee called Lee Probert, who makes Andy D'Urso look good. Let me explain why it is my personal opinion that Lee Probert is unfit to referee, and based on what I saw, why some might believe him to be a cheat.

1) In the first half there was a foul on a Norwich player (Chris Martin), the ball ricocheted through to Lee Croft who was then one on one with the goal keeper. Does the referee play an advantage and allow Croft to shoot ? No. Lee Probert blows his whistle and brings play back for A Norwich free kick. Why didn't he play the advantage when a Norwich player was clear on goal ?

2) Second half, Darren Huckerby robs a Derby defender of the ball on the half way line. Huckerby knocks the ball past the defender, and he is one on one with the goalkeeper. The Derby defender bring Huckerby down. By the rules of the game, this is a red card offence, but no, the ball goes through to Chris Martin, another Norwich player, the ref signals that he is playing "the advantage". Martin brings the ball down, takes a touch, controls it and scores. But wait, now the linesman raises his flag, some five seconds later and signals that it is offside. How can the referee allow an advantage if the player he is giving the advantage to is now penalised for being offside ? There was no advantage to give ! Absolutely appalling refereeing.

3) When Derby took the lead, time wasting of the first order kicked in. I don't blame Derby for this, but the referee did absolutely nothing. It took Derby nearly a minute to take one corner at one point and he did nothing. When a Derby player claimed he had been hurt, Lee Probert, the fool in the black, allowed the Derby player to run quickly in to his own penalty area, away fro the sideline where he was first injured before then doing a dying swan act so that the trainer had further to run. If he had been hurt, wouldn't the player have run off to the side of the pitch ?

4) Injury time. There was at least 8 minutes of injury time. Lee Probert gave four minutes. Two minutes of injury time was used by a player being injured and treated. Then he blew his whistle on exactly four minutes, allowing no extra time for the two minutes of injury time used dealing with the injury ?

5) A Derby player (the goalkeeper Steven Bywater- Watch him, he should be Oscar nominated next year), threw the ball out of play claiming he was injured. To be fair, he was so badly injured that he was able to chase after a Norwich player and had to be restrained by the referee, such was his serious and debilitating injury. You know, you can always tell when a player is paralysed with pain by the way they suddenly start sprinting around the pitch in the most able bodied way. Lee Probert, doing his Zippo the Clown impression, then insisted that the goalkeeper be given the ball back, no drop ball, despite FA rules stating that if a team kicks the ball out of play when their own player is injured, the games should continue as normal. Absolute incompetent refereeing.

.

6) Lee Probert them gave a yellow card to a Derby player for celebrating scoring the winning goal. What an absolute pillock !

I really could go on and on and on. After the game, all the talk was about the referee's incompetence, and had nothing to do with what had been an engrossing game.

Words really do defy what a fool and an imbecile I believe Lee Probert, a supposed Premiership referee, was tonight. He obviously realised he made a mistake when he failed to send off a Derby player and then allowed the bizarre "advantage" only to give the offside, but then proceeded to try and dig himself out of it be giving bizarre free kicks for any reason to Norwich, thus making himself look even more stupid.

He also became aware of the anger of the crowd because he appeared unwilling to move, for most of the last 20 minutes, out of the centre of the pitch so that he couldn't be shouted at by fans.

Fair play to Derby, a neat and tidy team, and I wouldn't want to detract from their gutsy display. They didn't deserve to win, but then neither did Manchester United last weekend, and the sign of a good team is that they can win when they don't always deserve to. However, having joke referees like Lee Probert really should worry all teams.

Getting in to the Premiership is worth £30 million next year. A joker like Lee Probert could have made a decision that could cost a team promotion, or condemn a team to relegation. All teams, all fans should, in my opinion, fear seeing the name Lee Probert on their match programme as he is, in my opinion, incompetent and a disgrace.

.

P.S. Lee Probert does have "form" when it comes to dubious decisions against Norwich. In August of 2005 when Southampton missed a penalty against Norwich, he allowed them to retake it because, get this, a Southampton player had encroached in to the area. So Southampton, because of something they did, gained themselves the right to re-take the penalty, from which they then scored. Words really cannot explain how people like this are allowed to referee what is supposed to be our national game.

.

P.P.S. Check out this review of his performance from the now sadly defunct Rate The Ref website. Its from a few years ago, but says much about his abilities, and still he is getting promoted . At this rate he will be a premiership ref soon !