Chris Dunlavy
A FRESH TAKE ON FOOTBALL

LAST April, Norwich City and their promotion bandwagon rolled into Derby County’s Pride Park. Grim resignation, if not outright terror, gripped the city.
Four days earlier, the Canaries had faced Huddersfield Town at Carrow Road and administered a defeat so total and comprehensive that the 7-0 scoreline actually flattered the visitors.
At Derby, the scenes before kick-off resembled the passage from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, when an outnumbered and outgunned host contemplates its doom at Helm’s Deep. Heads were shaken. Brackets mentioned. Anot...