On Saturday we face Norwich, who have spent the last few years bouncing between the Championship and the Premier League. We’ve had some memorable games against the Canaries in the past, especially in the Cup.
SUNDERLAND 7-1 NORWICH - LEAGUE DIVISION TWO - 20.03.1963
Historically Norwich are a team we haven’t done very well against, losing more than we’ve won. With that being said we still do have some big victories against them, including a 7-1 thrashing in 1963 at Roker Park. By half time Nick Sharkley had a hattrick, and by full time he had five goals to his name. Becoming one of four men to have scored five goals in a game for us, he joined the likes of Jimmy Millar, Charlie Buchan, and Bobby Gurney.
NORWICH 1-0 SUNDERLAND - MILK CUP FINAL - 24.04.1985
The match became known as the ‘Friendship Final” such was the atmosphere of the game, and subsequent league games became the Friendship Trophy, the winner being the side that came out on top over the two games in a particular season. It’s a bit sad that it eventually petered out, but it was nice while it lasted. A deflection from Gordon Chisholm’s chest was the only one of the game, and the mistake would follow Corner throughout his career, although we had a great chance to level things almost immediately when we were awarded a penalty. I’d love it to have been Steve Bruce who conceded it, but it was a comedy handball by Norwich fullback Dennis van Wijk that even the most ardent mag would have spotted. Ref Neil Midgely certainly didn’t. Clive Walker, who’d scored twice at Stamford Bridge, stepped up and wrote himself into the history books when he became the first player to fail from the spot in a Wembley Cup Final. A disgruntled Colin West was immediately sold to Watford, where he got his gruntle back and scored more goals than we did over the remaining dozen games, as we didn’t manage a league win, with three draws and nine defeats. Later in the season we went down, and so did Norwich. Another one for the record books. A cracking weekend, though, apart from the ninety minutes in the middle.
SUNDERLAND 1-0 NORWICH - FA CUP SEMI-FINAL - 05.04.1992
Part and parcel of being a Sunderland fan is trying to get used to the rollercoaster ride of emotions every year and this fixture was the peak of the rollercoaster, and then the final that followed was the steep drop. In this match though we won thanks to a John Byrne header and that set us up to head to Wembley where Liverpool put us to the sword and beat us 2-0. Nevertheless this game was a great day, we won, the atmosphere was class and we had a date at Wembley to look forward to.
NORWICH 1-4 SUNDERLAND - LEAGUE CUP 2ND ROUND - 24.08.2009
In 2009 at Carrow Road we defeated Norwich four goals to one, thanks to an Andy Reid brace, a Teemu Tainio opener and an Owain Tudur-Jones own goal. Wes Hoolahan scored the Canaries’ only goal of the game in the 63rd minute making the score 1-3, just four minutes before their own goal. It wasn’t really the start of a historic cup run or anything, we breezed past Villa 2-0 in the third round but were then stumped by Portsmouth after future Mackem Darren Bent scored the only goal in the game to knock us out of the competition.
NORWICH 0-3 SUNDERLAND - PREMIER LEAGUE - 16.04.2016
This game was actually against our current manager, Alex Neil, and it was our first league win at Carrow Road since 1985. Borini, Defoe and Watmore were the scorers on the day. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but as Alex Neil says with us we got the result so who cares. All we did was lump it up the pitch and if that didn’t work well… we’d just lump it back up again hoping Jermain would get on the end of it, and to be fair he did.
NORWICH 1-3 SUNDERLAND - CHAMPIONSHIP - 13.08.2017
Early on in a dismal season we went down to Carrow Road and Lewis Grabban double with a Aiden McGeady 20 yarder secured all three points. We were dominated to be honest, but thanks to our decent finishing on the day we got the result. Technically Grabban got a hattrick, after he netted an own goal for his former side, along with his two for us.
You can see McGeady’s strike here 👇
SUNDERLAND 1-1 NORWICH - CHAMPIONSHIP - 10.14.2018
A real dagger of the heart sort of game, we went ahead after George Honeyman tapped in a rebound from an Aiden McGeady attempt that hit the woodwork. Norwich had plenty of chances, and they also hit the frame of the goal and it was starting to look like one of those days for the Canaries and boy could we have done with that. Then as per Norwich equalised in the 89th minute from a set piece, finished off by Ivo Pinto. The result left us six points from safety with four games to go, and two of those against the top two teams in the league - Fulham and Wolves. It hadn’t been officially confirmed but for us we were down, of course we all had hope but it’s the hope that kills you.
This weekend I’d take a draw to be honest, Norwich have just been relegated from the Premier League and they have a few players who look dangerous and could be a handful to deal with on Saturday.
