By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
The Premier League relegation battle tightened up following
Saturday’s results. Aston Villa’s demise was finally confirmed when a 1-0
defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United ensured they would be playing
football in England’s second tier for the first time since 1987/1988.
However, Sunderland and Newcastle United both gained vital
wins in their battle to stay up. Sunderland went away to relegation rivals
Norwich City and produced an excellent performance to win 3-0 and close the gap
on the Canaries to just a point with a game in hand. Newcastle’s 3-0 victory at
home to Swansea City kept the Magpies just about in touch.
With the final month looming, I’m starting a new series over
the next few weeks called ‘Tales of Survival’ and ‘Tales
of the Drop’. I will be looking back to previous Premier League
campaigns with 12 stories of survival and 12 stories that ended in the pain of
relegation.
The series starts with a look at a catastrophic collapse for
Norwich City in season 1994/1995. The East Anglian side had finished third in
the inaugural Premier League campaign and had an emerging side. Two seasons
later, they were relegated to the First Division after a campaign of two
halves.
Sutton sold
The signs of potential decline had been evident in the
closing stages of the previous campaign. Having been as high as third in the
table in November 1993, Norwich dropped away badly, winning only one of their
last nine matches and ended the 1993/1994 season in 12th spot.
Having scored 25 goals the previous season, it was always
going to be difficult for manager John Deehan to keep Chris Sutton at the club.
He left that summer for Blackburn Rovers in a £5m deal, which was a new British
transfer record.
No obvious replacement was made for Sutton’s goals
initially. Norwich brought in midfielder Mike Milligan from Oldham Athletic,
then paid Leeds United a seven-figure fee for defender Jon Newsome, the first
time they had done this in the club’s history.
Mike Sheron eventually arrived from Manchester City to boost
attacking options, but with Efan Ekoku and Mark Robins on the striking roster,
it was expected that Norwich would have another solid campaign.
Dreams of Europe
The first half of the season was very impressive from
Deehan’s side. They conceded just two goals in their first five matches and
they came in an opening day 2-0 defeat to Chelsea.
Blackburn and Leeds were beaten in consecutive weekends at the
start of October. Newsome scored a deflected winner against that season’s
champions. A popular figure with the fans, he had been handed the captain’s
armband at the start of the season and was voted Player of the Year by the fans
at the end of the turbulent campaign.
 |
| Ashley Ward made a goalscoring debut in December 1994 |
Ekoku though would not see the month out. He was sold to
Wimbledon for £900,000. Two weeks later, he scored the decisive goal for his
new team against his old club infront of the Sky cameras. It was another
concerning move by owner Robert Chase, who seemed willing to cash in on talent
following the recent sales of Sutton and Ruel Fox to Newcastle United.
Ashley Ward (pictured) did arrive from Crewe Alexandra in early
December and made a dream debut. He scored twice in a 3-0 victory at home to
Chelsea and would end up as the club’s top scorer with eight.
Despite a 2-0 loss at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Boxing
Day, Norwich were sitting in an exceptional seventh position, 11 points clear
of danger and ahead of some far more illustrious sides.
BOXING DAY 1994 TABLE
|
POS
|
TABLE
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
GD
|
PTS
|
|
7
|
NORWICH CITY
|
20
|
8
|
6
|
6
|
19
|
17
|
+2
|
30
|
|
8
|
Tottenham Hotspur
|
20
|
8
|
5
|
7
|
34
|
34
|
0
|
29
|
|
9
|
Chelsea
|
20
|
8
|
4
|
8
|
28
|
26
|
+2
|
28
|
|
10
|
Manchester City
|
20
|
8
|
4
|
8
|
31
|
34
|
-3
|
28
|
|
11
|
Arsenal
|
20
|
6
|
7
|
7
|
23
|
22
|
+1
|
25
|
|
12
|
Coventry City
|
20
|
6
|
7
|
7
|
20
|
29
|
-9
|
25
|
Crushing blow
Although they were the fourth lowest scorers in the
division, only Blackburn and Manchester United had a better defensive record
than Norwich at this stage of the season. Things though were about to take a
crushing blow.
Norwich travelled to Nottingham Forest on 27 December 1994
for a game that would have shattering consequences for their season. They lost 1-0
to a goal from Lars Bohinen. More significantly though, Scottish goalkeeper
Bryan Gunn broke and dislocated an ankle, an injury that would rule him out for
the rest of the season. One of the side’s biggest characters was now missing
and it would have a major impact on the rest of the club’s season.
19-year-old Andy Marshall came on in goal to replace Gunn at
the City Ground. Despite efforts to bring in emergency cover on-loan, nothing
happened and Marshall would remain as the number one for the remainder of the
campaign. Not finding a temporary replacement for Gunn with experience was a major
error made in a season that was about to fall apart for Norwich.
They did beat title contenders Newcastle United 2-1 on New
Years’ Eve, before going on an 11-game winless run that saw slip into the
bottom half of the table. Against West Ham in March, they did get a draw
despite having the wrong player sent off. Spencer Prior committed a second
bookable offence and started heading down the tunnel when the substitute referee
sent Andy Johnson off instead.
A red card played a part in Norwich’s last win of the
season. John Wark’s dismissal in the East Anglian derby helped the hosts to a
3-0 win over bottom club Ipswich, a result that briefly took them back into the
top half of the table. There was to be no happy ending though.
A poisoned chalice
On 9 April, after a 3-0 defeat away to Newcastle United,
John Deehan handed in his resignation as manager after 15 months in the post.
The fans began protests against Robert Chase, calling for him to step aside
following a succession of player sales and disappointing results. They started
a petition in vain to get Mike Walker back as manager but it was Gary Megson
who was offered the poisoned chalice to try and keep the club in the
top-flight.
It all ended at Elland Road on 6 May 1995. Norwich slipped
to a 2-1 defeat which confirmed their relegation from the Premier League with a
seventh successive loss. 10 points from 20 games in 1995 had turned their
season from one of potential promise into a disaster.
FINAL
1994/1995 TABLE – THE BOTTOM SIX
|
POS
|
TABLE
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
GD
|
PTS
|
|
17
|
Manchester City
|
42
|
12
|
13
|
17
|
53
|
64
|
-11
|
48
|
|
18
|
Aston Villa
|
42
|
11
|
15
|
16
|
51
|
56
|
-5
|
48
|
|
19
|
Crystal Palace
|
42
|
11
|
12
|
19
|
34
|
49
|
-15
|
45
|
|
20
|
NORWICH CITY
|
42
|
10
|
13
|
19
|
37
|
54
|
-17
|
43
|
|
21
|
Leicester City
|
42
|
6
|
11
|
25
|
45
|
80
|
-35
|
29
|
|
22
|
Ipswich Town
|
42
|
7
|
6
|
29
|
36
|
93
|
-57
|
27
|
After failing to keep the Canaries up, Megson quit and
Martin O’Neill was chosen as the man to take over in Division One. They would
only finish 16th in the season afterwards and didn’t return to the
Premier League until 2004/2005.
Norwich’s 1994/1995 season was a season of two halves. It
also gives proof that as a team, you must keep going and performing throughout
a campaign otherwise you can just go through the trap door to the surprise of
many.
NEXT: Tales of Survival – West Brom in 2004/2005
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