Along Come Norwich Flashback – Southampton 2 – 2 Norwich City (2009)

Story of the Match

This was the final match of Norwich’s only ever excursion into the Football League Trophy, the cup which is famous for having (in a world of Middle-Eastern airlines and crypto) the best list of sponsors in football history – all of which that seemed, when mentioned, to add to the ridicule and humiliation of having to play in it. Papa John’s, Johnstone’s Paints, LDV Vans, Checkatrade, Autoglass – all of Talksport’s premier half-time advertisers are there, ready to be the source of many a joke from Twitter reply guys / the people in that WhatsApp group you wish you’d left / the bloke down the pub who smells of Ovaltine. 2009 was a dark time to be a Norwich City supporter, my friends.

So it was that Norwich City, of the third tier for the only season since 1959, schlepped over to Southampton for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Area Semi-Final on Tuesday 15 December (a date that Paul Lambert must have loved with the Christmas schedule coming).

The game itself was…pretty good actually, with both sides putting out reasonably strong lineups. Southampton took an early lead, before Gary Doherty (yeah, that’s right) decided to test the net’s tensile strength by absolutely thricking the ball in from six yards out to equalise. Chris Martin tapped in to put Norwich ahead on 55 minutes, before Southampton scored in the last minute to force extra time and penalties.

Cody McDonald was that day’s Daryll Sutch, with Bartosz Białkowski saving his penalty and, with it, putting Southampton through to the Area Final. Needless to say, as it was him who strayed outside of his box allowing Timm Klose to sneak in to header the last-minute “how awful!” equaliser against Ipswich, we had the last laugh (now fuck off!).

You may will have forgotten that

Norwich had managed two whole goals in the tournament before they went to St Mary’s, despite playing and winning three rounds. 1-0 against Brentford, 1-0 against Gillingham, and then a penalty win against Swindon after what sounds like the worst 0-0 in football history.

Long term significance

After being knocked out of the Trophy, Norwich won their next eight league games in a row – cementing their place at the top of the league. Already out of both other cups before Christmas, a distraction free run to the line certainly helped keep the momentum rolling all through the rest of that season and into the next.

There had been much debate through the season as to whether or not we, as supporters, should take the Trophy seriously and whether it would be cool or an embarrassment to get to the Final at Wembley. I believe now, as I believed at the time, that if Norwich are at the level to be playing in it – then that’s your level, and you shouldn’t be thinking it was beneath you. This was before the Football League decided to ruin the Trophy by sticking Premier League reserve teams in it, after all, and it still had significance as a serious competition. But, I must admit, considering what happened subsequently, I am also rather pleased that this was all rendered moot.

What happened next?

Norwich won the league and were then promoted again to the Premier League the following season. After the ludicrous decision to open the competition up to Catagory One Academies in 2016-17, Norwich U-23s have since played in the Trophy three times and not really got anywhere in it.

Southampton won the competition that year, beating Carlisle 4-1 at Wembley in front of an impressive 73,000 – but missed out on the playoffs in the league. They wouldn’t be promoted until the following year.