Along Come Norwich Flashback – Norwich 3-1 Wolves (2002 H)

Story of the match

This was Norwich’s first ever play-off match and ended a long wait to finally be in a promotion mix come May. Having never really been near it at that stage of the campaign since relegation in 1995, this season was monumental.

Even then, we had only snuck in on the last day of the season by one goal by beating the 10-men of already-relegated Stockport 2-0, while Burnley only managed a 1-0 win over Coventry. Weeks before, after a 1-0 home defeat to Birmingham, the dream had looked dead. Five wins and two draws followed to nudge us over the line.

Wolves, meanwhile, had choked automatic promotion, winning just two of their final nine games. To make matters worse, they had lost out on a place in the Premier League to their fierce Black Country rivals West Brom, blowing an 11 point lead over them. It felt like Wolves were there for the taking.

In the first-half at Carrow Road, that script was not followed. Wolves settled the better of the two sides and Dean Sturridge gave the away side the advantage at the break, capitalising on some poor defending.

At half-time I would tell anybody who would listen we were going to turn it around in the second half. I can’t remember why I was so confident, but I do know it is the most confident I’ve been in Norwich in a big match. An unshakeable gut feeling it was going to be our day, just one goal was needed to turn the tide.

And so it proved, the second half was pure ecstasy. First, Mark Rivers grabbed an equaliser with a well timed, slightly awkward slow volley, then Paul McVeigh netted a superb glancing header to make it 2-1 before Malky Mackay nodded home the third in injury time. That third goal would eventually prove key in sending Norwich to Cardiff for their first-ever playoff final at the first attempt. Carrow Road was bouncing, a true carnival atmosphere.

As the sun shone on the Barclay post final-whistle, many fans stayed behind to soak in the moment. Perfect Day by Lou Reed played over the tannoy, hundreds sang-along. For many it was their first time tasting any kind of day in the sun in terms of their Norwich fandom, for a lot of us it washed away years of pain. The party continued throughout the city that sunny afternoon especially on a particularly lively Riverside.

You may have forgotten that

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Clint Easton is our greatest ever set piece taker. You want to beat the first man? Clint’s yer man. His corners and free kicks had a habit of finding the head of Malky Mackay during the season run-in all the way to the playoff final.  Although he was much maligned by many fans, I always had a soft spot for him and in this game he delivered the late free kick for Mackay to head home. He also provided the assist for the McVeigh goal and the cross for the equaliser when Mackay headed it down to Rivers.

It is also worth remembering that the start of the World Cup was moved to the 31st May due to the monsoon season in Japan and Korea, which meant this playoff semi-final was played on the last Saturday in April!

What happened next?

Norwich lost the second leg 1-0, but that didn’t matter. Wolves had piled on the pressure in the final minutes backed by a raucous crowd, but Norwich held on. A home fan pulled out a “You’ve Let Us Down Again” flag after the final whistle, something which became a kind of a meme before memes were a thing.

Having survived a storm of coins and bottles of piss raining down on us in the away end throughout the game, the aggregate victory felt even sweeter. As I made it back to the car with my best mate in silence, with no colours or smiles showing to stay safe, we then entered the car and proceeded to recreate that scene from Only Fools and Horses when Del and Rodney finally made it rich.

Heartbreak was to follow though as we lost on penalties to Birmingham in the final. Although it should always be noted that it did set us up for one of the most glorious of seasons two years later.

Long term significance

I have written before that 2001-2002, and specifically Marc Libbra’s lightning strike against Manchester City, was a rebirth of the club. The run-in to the playoffs, and the playoffs themselves, meant the club almost always had full houses thereafter. We gained around 8,000 more regulars to Carrow Road between the start of 2001 to the end of our Premier League campaign in 2005 and it has increased by 2000 more since.

Wolves recovered the following season, thrashing us at Carrow Road to end any hope we had of the playoffs on Easter Monday before finishing the season strong and winning the playoffs.

They then spent the next decade or so bouncing around three divisions before Jez Moxey departed as CEO when Steve Morgan sold the club, and the Chinese and Portuguese contingent took hold. Wolves feel like an entirely different club these days to the rabble we had numerous fierce encounters and developed a (mostly one-sided) hatred with in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ultimately, both clubs look in much better shape than they did twenty years ago and both are in the fabled “promised land”, Wolves significantly richer of course, but who isn’t?