351: Jeremy Goss, Norwich City, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

In true Alan Partridge style we’re going to stop talking about American things and head to Norwich courtesy of Richard Allinson. Time for some great hair, great kits and questionable student nightclubs.

Earlier in the week we featured Bobby Mimms and the irritating fact he wasn’t awarded a 1994/95 Premier League winners medal despite, y’know, playing in a Premier League winning team (insert one of those red faced emoji things that unnecessarily angry people use). On the complete opposite end of the success spectrum that season was a man that got relegated - Norwich City’s Jeremy Goss.

Norwich is a fine city. Not my words Michael, the words of the official sign on the way in. I spent my university days there, achieving Europa League qualification levels of academic success, but what I really learned from my time in Norfolk (and much more important than the principles of strategic management, which to be fair are as dull as shit) is that Canaries’ fans are a passionate bunch. Norwich Pete, a bloke who I shared halls with in the first year, was Norwich City mad. To be fair, I think he was actually a bit mad in general, but he really bloody loved Norwich.

Another example of how much the city loves their football club was the day my beloved Grimsby Town spanked the Canaries’ near rivals Ipswich Town 3-0 in 2002. I was wearing my Mariners’ shirt out that night (in a nightclub, god bless dreadful student nights) and received a lot of congratulations and handshakes which were wholly undeserved. The only thing of note I had achieved that day was to lose in straight sets to a mushroom on Mario Smash Tennis. However, Grimsby had beaten Ipswich, I supported Grimsby and therefore, for one night, I was a hero to drunk Norwich City fans.

Right, sorry. Jeremy Goss. Let’s face it, his career is largely remembered for one thing: absolutely kerplunking one past Bayern Munich’s goalkeeper (some lad I have never heard of) to earn the Canaries a 2-1 win in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup and in the process making them the first British club to beat the European powerhouse at the Olympiastadion. Historically, this night lives long in the memory of a lot of English football fans and I can think of five main reasons why:

1. Norwich’s kit that year was absolutely fantastic.

2. Jeremy Goss had good hair.

3. The aforementioned kerplunking volley.

4. After finishing third in the Premier League in 1992/93 this was Norwich’s first and only foray into European football.

5. A team from what is basically a big market town beat the four time European Champions.

Reading up on this game chucked out an interesting tactic from Norwich manager Mike Walker. He identified that Lothar Matthäus, captain of Germany, World Cup, Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of Year winner, was Bayern’s weak link. Maybe this was because big Lothar wasn’t sure if the multi-talented Chris Sutton would be playing up front or at centre half and therefore wouldn’t have had a clue whether to mark him or not. Who knows? Either way it worked and it has gone down in history as, according to the BBC at least, Norwich City’s finest hour. John Motson captured the whole mood around the Bayern tie perfectly in this summary: "the rise of Norwich City from provincial respectability to European admiration… (along with) …the refreshing impact of loyal, unsung players... made City's continental capers so appealing." The words encapsulate the whole underdog mentality so many football fans are drawn to: Wimbledon beating Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final; Leicester winning the Premier League in 2016; Grimsby beating Liverpool in the 2001 Worthington Cup third round. All the big events.

A couple of seasons on from the Bayern tie the Canaries were relegated from the Premier League and, after a spell of being in and out of the side, Goss moved onto Heart of Midlothian. Obviously he liked finishing third in a division. He spent a solitary season in Scotland before returning back to English football firstly with Colchester United before moving on to non-league Kings Lynn before retirement in 1999.

What I have absolute respect for is that Goss has embraced the continued goodwill around the Munich game rather than shy away from it. In 2010 he undertook a #BacktoBayern challenge, a 1300 mile sponsored bike ride, retracing Norwich City’s European run from Norwich to Vitesse Arnhem, to Bayern Munich, to Inter Milan, in aid of the Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Blind (NNAB) raising over £26,000 in the process. This really is some achievement and I’d like to think that if those same Norwich fans that bought me beers in 2002 saw Jeremy Goss out in in Liquid now they’d buy him a pint too.