PU PREVIEW 56: NORWICH CITY

Norwich City FC was formed in June 1902 after a meeting at a cafe. They were elected to the Southern League in 1905. The club was first known as 'The Citizens' but this changed in 1907 to 'The Canaries' due to the chairman being a keen breeder of the birds. The city also had a history of the birds being imported by Flemish weavers in the 15th and 16th centuries. The club strip also changed to the now-familiar yellow and green. Norwich went into voluntary liquidation in December 1917 but re-formed in February 1919. The club joined the Football League in May 1920 and moved to their present ground, Carrow Road, in 1935. King George VI visited the ground in October 1938. In the 1958-59 season, Norwich reached the FA Cup semi-final as a Third Division side, beating two First Division sides on the way, Tottenham Hotspur and Matt Busby's Manchester United. The club was promoted in 1960 and two years later won the League Cup, defeating Rochdale over two legs. They finally won promotion to the First Division in 1972 and the following season again reached the League Cup final; however, on this occasion, they lost to Tottenham. Norwich reached the final for the third time in 1975 and were defeated by Aston Villa. A fourth final came in 1985 and this time Norwich won, defeating Sunderland. The club was then relegated, the first time an English side had achieved a Cup win and been relegated in the same season. The club was denied its place in European competition due to the ban on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium disaster. Norwich finished third in the inaugural season of the Premier League (1992-93) and competed in the UEFA Cup the following season, losing to Inter Milan in the third round. Before going out, they became the first British side to defeat Bayern Munich on their own ground. TV cook Delia Smith and her husband became major shareholders in the club in 1996. The club lost its first match of the 2009-10 season 7-1 against Colchester United, the club's heaviest ever home defeat. Later that month, they appointed the Colchester boss Paul Lambert as the club's new manager and he led them to back-to-back promotions. German coach Daniel Farke was appointed manager in May 2017.

The fans' song On the Ball, City is the oldest football song in the world still in use today and the chorus goes:

Former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was appointed Chairman in December 2015. The actor and presenter Stephen Fry is also a famous Norwich fan.

Norwich finished 14th in the Championship in the 2017-18 season.

Pompey and Norwich have played on sixty occasions. The first match came in March 1921 at Fratton Park, with Pompey winning 2-1. Pompey have won two of the three FA Cup matches, the other being drawn, and Norwich won a Full Members' Cup game. Of the fifty-six League meetings, Pompey have won nineteen and Norwich twenty-three, with fourteen games ending as draws. The last League meeting was in the Championship in May 2011 when Norwich won 1-0 at Fratton Park. Pompey won the most recent match, in the FA Cup, with a 1-0 success at Carrow Road on 5th January 2019.

(Information via Wikipedia and www.11v11.com)