The Norwich City matches we attended at the end of the 1997/98 season and those at the start of the 1998/99 season were in the last in our pre-kids era. In season 1999/2000 and 2000/01 I had to take a break for a while as it was hectic at home, we moved houses I was also moving jobs.
Lucy parents live in Burnham and we stayed at their place on Saturday night and went to the game from there. We arrived in Reading early, parked and walked to the ground very slowly as Lucy wasn’t feeling great – she was around 4 months pregnant with Gemma, now ten years old, and three times a Norwich mascot and season ticket holder with me.
We had been to Elm Park before, and sat down in the seats reserved for away fans when we lost 1-2. It was the game when Trevor Morley scored for Reading with an overhead kick and Neil Adams scored their winner with a cracking last minute own goal. This game it was standing only on the end terrace and it was an all ticket game as it was the last ever at Elm Park.
The toilets there were awful – just a huge long trough in a primitive concrete structure at the top of the terrace, they stunk, and the ladies facilities were no better.
We stood near the side which was occupied by the Reading fans as it was closer to the ladies, and the burger bar.
On the terraced side opposite the main stand that was next to us, throughout the game, plenty of wannabe hoolies were climbing up the fence acting like idiots and trying to start something.
After Bellamy scored early in the second half it turned worse as there was a hail of coins coming across at us. We moved back towards the centre of the terrace but were surprised that the cameras of the police were trained on us and not the Reading fans.
As regards what happened in the ninety minutes, all I can recall is that Flecky hit the bar for them and Bellamy scored with a lovely curling shot from the inside left channel after a nice through ball. Apart from that it was a very non-descript game.
Flecky came across at the end to applaud us, but there had been pitch invasion, and he couldn’t get too near the City fans.
For some reason I always associate Nigel Spackman with this game. With Mike Walker’s sacking the week before, there were a number of names in the frame for the City job, and Spackman was one of them having had a spell in charge at Sheffield United. As Lucy and I walked back from Elm Park to our car I recall hearing on a radio that he had either joined another club or ruled himself out of the running for the City job. My immediate thoughts were one of disappointment as I thought that he might have been a decent candidate. Looking back, I think it was a lucky escape for City.
Another Robert Fleck story always reminds me of this match as Reading and Oxford were local rivals. Flecky played for Reading at Ipswich on the day that we were at Oxford – this was at the end of March 1998. City had lost 0-2 in a very ordinary performance to a Francis (La La La La La Freak Freak Freak Freak was his song) goal from a defensive error and a penalty conceded from a stupid tackle by Forbes who came on a sub. Joey Beauchamp scored the pen.
Throughout the second half some guy was standing at the front on the right was yelling at Mike Walker, “WHERE’S ROBERT FLECK? OI WALKER, I CAN’T SEE ROBERT FLECK TODAY. WHERE’S HE GONE? OI WALKER PLEASE TELL ME WHY ROBERT FLECK’S NOT PLAYING TODAY!” This went on for quite some time. It looked as if his wife or girlfriend, who was with him, was shuffling further and further away in embarrassment.
We drove home down the A40, and on the way back we listened to 6-0-6. Danny Baker was the presenter. There had been a running theme of players being given hostile receptions at clubs that hated them. The first caller was a Reading fan who had brought a tape recorder to the game at Ipswich purposely to record the reception that Flecky was given by the Ipswich fans. As the team was announced the booing started as soon as their No7 had been read out. At No8….then all we could hear was a volley of booing and whistling. It was such an awful reception, that the caller played the recording again to much laughter from the studio and from Lucy and me in the car.
And one other old memory; this time, Neale Fenn. I thought looked a decent loan player in his month with us, and thought he might have been a good signing. But after the season ended he went back to Spurs, as we were managerless and it wouldn’t have made sense to sign him. I also heard Spurs wanted a silly fee for him as well. The next time I saw him play was when Lucy and I went to see Norwich City reserves play Spurs reserves at St Albans FC. It was the last game she saw before Gemma was born – November 1998. Neale Fenn was a sub for Spurs that evening, and I’m sure Paul McVeigh scored for Spurs our 1-2 loss. Daryl Russell also played and attracted the attention of a number of scouts, including a friend of mine who works for another London Club. Ian Walker was in goal for Spurs, and I remember him saying in an interview about the game that it was possibly the lowest point in his career. Adrian Coote scored for City that evening.
