As spring turned to summer in 1985, Norwich fans must have been emotionally drained. In March, the football Gods shone on them as they beat local rivals Ipswich in the League Cup semi-finals and then won the final against Sunderland to qualify for Europe for the first time in their history. But all that glory and hope would be taken away by the end of May.
Norwich’s league form collapsed after their big day out at Wembley, with a run of eight defeats in nine games sending them towards the relegation zone. Their season was in danger of falling apart but a win at Chelsea in their final game left them on 49 points, surely enough to keep them up. They just had to hope that Coventry, who still had three games to play, didn’t win them all.
At this point the storyline takes an agonising twist. Having failed to win any of their last four games, Coventry suddenly went on a run. In the space of nine days, they beat Stoke, Luton and newly crowned champions Everton to pull off the greatest of escapes and condemn Norwich to the Second Division. The Mirror’s “Sick as a canary” headline summed up the situation perfectly.
The misery continued. Five days after their relegation from the top flight, Norwich also lost their place in the Uefa Cup. The tragic events at Heysel that week led to English clubs being banned from European football for “an indeterminate period of time”. Norwich joined Everton, Manchester United and Southampton in taking an appeal to the high court, but the decision stood. Norwich manager Ken Brown had been planning for the club’s first foray into European football, but he was now preparing for a season in the Second Division.
Brown’s job looked under threat but he was given a one-year contract and told to secure promotion at the first attempt. In truth, he had the tools for the task ahead. England goalkeeper Chris Woods had to stay at the club after his transfer request was rejected and the formidable centre-back partnership of Dave Watson and Steve Bruce remained intact, despite many clubs being linked with the pair.
Mick Channon and Asa Hartford did leave, but Brown spent wisely when replacing them. Mike Phelan and Dave Williams added solidity in midfield; Ian Culverhouse and Wayne Biggins came in to bolster the squad in the autumn; and, even though he didn’t score in his first six matches, Kevin Drinkell’s goals eventually fired Norwich to promotion.
At first, Drinkell’s struggles matched those of his new team. Norwich lost three of their first five games, but their season finally took off with a thumping 4-0 win over Sheffield United. Their momentum stuttered briefly when Wimbledon came to Carrow Road in early October and won 2-1. Bruce suggested that the victors’ tactics would be more appropriate at Twickenham but Norwich toughened up after that defeat. They would not lose again in the league until they played Wimbledon again five months later.
From 5 October to 8 March, no other club in Division Two could lay a hand on Norwich. They went 18 games unbeaten, winning 14 of them, scoring 43 goals, conceding just 11, and winning 10 matches in a row for the first time in their history.
The 10-in-a-row run started with a 3-2 win over Grimsby. Then Bruce demonstrated his knack of scoring useful goals in wins over Leeds and Blackburn. Barham starred in a 6-1 demolition of Millwall, creating four goals and scoring himself. Drinkell scored in four consecutive matches, including a last-minute winner in a smash-and-grab at Fulham, after a superb display from Woods. Barham and Drinkell both scored in the ninth consecutive win, a 2-0 win over second-place Portsmouth in front of 20,129 fans at Carrow Road. And Peter Mendham scored his eighth goal of the campaign in the final match in the sequence, a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.
Even other managers were impressed. Oldham boss Joe Royle said Norwich were “far and away the best side we’ve played” after his team had been beaten 3-1 at home in December. Shrewsbury manager Chic Bates was similarly complimentary after Norwich won 3-0 at Gay Meadow: “I can only confirm what everyone else says – they’re in a different class to the rest of Division Two.”
The unbeaten run came to an end at Plough Lane (not Twickenham) with another 2-1 defeat to Wimbledon. That defeat could have given the other promotion chasers a hint of hope but, having learned the hard way the season before, Norwich were not keen to let a place in the First Division slip again. They won four games on the bounce after that defeat to Wimbledon – Biggins scored twice in a 4-1 win against Huddersfield; Williams did the same in the 2-1 victory over Carlisle; Sheffield United were hit for five at Bramall Lane; and John Deehan, who had missed three months of the season through injury, scored the winner against Fulham.
It was now a case of when, not if, Norwich would achieve promotion. With the Friendship Trophy safely in the bag (no, me neither), they secured their return to the top flight with a 2-0 win at Odsal Stadium, Bradford’s temporary home. Appropriately, goals from Drinkell and Biggins clinched promotion. “It’s been a long, hard season, but everything has been so worthwhile,” said Brown.
They sealed the title with a 1-1 draw against Stoke and finished the campaign in style by beating Leeds 4-0 at Carrow Road. To make things that much sweeter, local rivals Ipswich passed Norwich on the way down. “We’d have been delighted just to win promotion,” wrote Watson in his programme notes before the final match of the season. “But to go up as champions – and such runaway, convincing champions as we have been – really has been extra special. We haven’t had to scrape through many games. We’ve played our way out of the Second Division – and that’s been important.” They had not been too good to go down in 1985, but they proved too good not to go up in 1986.
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