What a couple of weeks it has been for us City fans!
Frustratingly I haven’t been able to share my thoughts on our monumental achievement here on ‘Let’s be ‘Avin You’, due largely to a lack of facilities. (i.e my laptop decided to flake out on me. Maybe it was exhausted from the events of this season too?!)
I apologise, although not sure you would’ve missed me amongst the euphoria. It is now sinking in. Just. We will be playing Premiership football next season. I don’t think until the fixture list comes out, will it really hit home that we are there again, but I’m definitely getting used to the idea.
On the night it happened, I was in shock. More so that we had done it at Fratton Park, if I’m honest. In the days leading up to it, I was convinced that automatic promotion would be decided on the final day. Convinced! I had a nagging feeling Cardiff would win and we would slip up against Portsmouth. (I know, I know, I shouldn’t have been so negative, but it’s easy to say that in hindsight!) However, I was also hopeful, that if that permutation were true, we could still rely on Burnley to do us a favour on the final day.
Turns out, it was Middlesbrough that gave us a helping hand. 3-0 at Cardiff was not expected. The Bluebirds bottled it – in some players’ case, literally, less than 48 hours prior, according to some reports.
We still had it all to do though, didn’t we?! A win at Fratton Park wasn’t a given, and whilst some people were quick to point out that Norwich ‘have bottled it before’ under such circumstances, they didn’t this time. We didn’t cave in, we didn’t buckle under the pressure, we didn’t panic when the chances came and went and the score stayed at 0-0. We were focused, knew exactly what we had to do, went out and did it…albeit with a few nervy moments at the end!
The feeling on the final whistle was immense. I jumped up – twinging my groin in the process, (not the first time I’ve suffered a minor injury when engaging in such activity) screamed the loudest ‘Yessss!” I could manage, before fighting back tears I could feel ready to gush out. We had achieved the dream.
I’m not going to lie, I never thought we had a chance of promotion. I was one of those just happy to consolidate. Even with a month to go, I felt we’d finish out of the automatic spots, and was ready to accept a play-off place, thank you very much. Perhaps that was a mentality stemmed from previous experiences. Perhaps it was just me, ever the pessimist! But I should’ve known better. We are a different Norwich City these days. We are a club, who now has players who want to play for it; has one of the brightest young managers (in my opinion) in management today whom has brought a belief and winning mentality to our club, and we have people behind the scenes who have and continue to work hard to ensure the stability of the club. We are on the up, after seasons of freefalling.
The scenes at Carrow Road last Saturday will live long in the 
memory. It was a carnival atmosphere. The noise was immense; Carrow Road a sea of beautiful yellow and green. I felt like a mother showing pride at the achievement of one of her own, or in this case, ‘the boys’. The sight of Lambert sitting on the advertising hoardings at kick-off depicted a man satisfied with his seasons work. And so he should be. Two promotions in two seasons; I don’t care who you are, that is some achievement. Particularly considering the resources at Lambert’s disposal. He didn’t spend a large amount of money, instead hand-picked players whom he felt would give him the commitment and desire he requires from those that play under him. There were no big names; Andrew Crofts was a player I had vaguely heard of. David Fox, only because he scored against us on that painful opening day in League One. Simeon Jackson? Well, it took time, but my goodness how he repaid Lambert in the end. On paper, not the strongest squad in the Championship, with Holt and Hoolahan perhaps the only players that fans from other teams could name. But then a season isn’t played out on paper is it. Neither is it about individuals. It’s a team game, and the desire, commitment, togetherness and application of the players was spot-on throughout.
