Proud Canaries member and Norwich City fan Zak Nelson discussed his memories of Carrow Road in Saturday's edition of our matchday magazine OTBC.
The edition of the programme was dedicated to LGBTQ+ History Month and Football v Homophobia’s Month of Action. Below is the interview with Zak.
OTBC: Hello Zak. Thank you for agreeing to share your memories of Carrow Road with us. Can you tell us how you became a Norwich City supporter?
ZN: I think it was just from living in the area, really. My parents are football fans, but me and my brother were always into football growing up. So, living in Norfolk, it was our local team and we would always listen to games on the radio on a Saturday and it just kind of escalated from there.
OTBC: Can you remember your first visit to Carrow Road and what your first impressions were of the stadium and the atmosphere?
ZN: I believe it was a 3-0 win against Queens Park Rangers in 2008, when I was 12. We had secured survival from being relegated to League One that day. My dad took me and my brother to the game and I remember Lee Camp in the goal for QPR spending a lot of the time out of his box, which I thought was strange, and there was one occasion where he came almost out to the halfway line to slide tackle somebody.
That stuck in my memory even this far gone, but it is difficult to remember my thoughts and feelings at the time, but I must have enjoyed myself because I have been back several times since.
I remember it being the last home game of the season and the crowd being quite a big one and because we secured survival, I imagine that the atmosphere would have been a pretty good one.
OTBC: In the following season did you then start to go more regularly?
ZN: No, in the early days it was always a treat, a one-off. I would probably go once a year at that time. I became a season ticket holder in 2017 which is quite recent, but before then it was always a treat because we couldn’t afford to go regularly. However, once a got my own job, saved up a bit and got through on the waiting list, I started to go regularly.
OTBC: From those early years of supporting Norwich, who were the players that you used to look up to? Who were your favourites?
ZN: I trained as a goalkeeper and I went to one of Bryan Gunn’s schools in the summer and that was always good fun. I used to always get picked as a goalkeeper for my youth teams. As fans we all like the goalscorers though and I remember on my 12th birthday I was actually obsessed with David Strihavka. It is one of those rare names that doesn’t come up because I think he only scored once and then left six months later. However, he wore number 22, which is my favourite numbers and still is, and he scored a winning goal on my 12th birthday. So, he instantly became a hero in my book and I have not forgotten that moment since.
OTBC: If you were to pick out your favourite game from your time supporting Norwich at Carrow Road, which game would you choose?
ZN: It is between the play-off semi-final against Ipswich Town or beating Manchester City in 2019. The play-off semi-final was sweeter, because it was beating our rival, which was excellent, and it was getting to Wembley as well, which was excellent. However, out of general enjoyment it was beating Manchester City. I remember everybody turning up and not expecting us to get anything at all. We had all accepted that we were there to watch our team, support them, but then suddenly out of the blue we are 2-0 up and we were all thinking ‘what is happening, this is brilliant’. The game was close to my birthday as well which was nice.
OTBC: The expectation was lowered for that game as well because Norwich City had quite a few injuries at that time.
ZN: Yes, it was definitely more hope than expectation. Nobody would have battered an eyelid if we had lost that game 3-0 and that is what made the game even better, it was the surprise of it. I remember us having central midfielders playing in defence and to win the game was amazing. The atmosphere was spinetingling. It was immense. I have not experienced anything like it since. People said after the Everton game this season, the atmosphere was similar because of how quick the two goals were together in terms of the timing. However, for me, the Manchester City game was a different kind of atmosphere because you really felt like an underdog and the team spirit and togetherness got the team through it.
OTBC: This programme is dedicated to LGBTQ+ History Month and Football v Homophobia’s Month of Action. You are a member of Proud Canaries – a supporters’ group that challenges homophobia and transphobia home and away – can you just tell us about your involvement with that group and what it means to you?
ZN: I can’t really remember exactly how I got involved with them. I think Di (Cunningham, the group’s founder) reached out to me at some point on Twitter. I got invited down the pub before one of the games, they meet at Lollards Pit, and have a few drinks and meet LGBTQ+ fans from the opposition team as well. We try and meet the corresponding group from the opposition fans every game if we can. The Canal Street Blues are coming down for today’s game so hopefully we will get to meet them and have a few drinks with them before the game and just chat about football with people who have been through the same things that you have been through.
We recently had Proud Canaries football club as well, although it was stop by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we had a tournament at Carrow Road a few years ago and had some training sessions at Colney, which the players got involved with. That was good fun and just a really nice, relaxed group with really genuine people that you could be around and have a good time with and enjoy football with.
OTBC: How much do the initiatives within football – like LGBTQ+ History Month and Football v Homophobia – mean to you as members of Proud Canaries and supporters of football?
ZN: It means a lot because at the moment it is still needed and it is going to be needed for a while based on the responses that we have seen on social media even today when the story about Norwich City supporting LGBTQ+ History Month and Football v Homophobia’s Month of Action.
Those comments show that the work is needed, and the visibility is needed. There are going LBTQ+ footballers out there, who are not out, and you know that just because of maths and statistics. It stands to reason that they are not out because they do not feel that it is safe to be so at the moment to come out and be themselves and some people say ‘it is not relevant’.
The most common phrases ‘I don’t care who you share your bed with, it is football just go on the pitch and play and nobody is going to care’ but the fact is that people do care otherwise there would be professional footballers who would be out and there wouldn’t be a big thing about it.
History shows there is an issues, and the initiatives do help with that. I put my Rainbow Laces on for the Stonewall's Laces campaign back in November and I haven’t taken them off. I was going to, but then I thought ‘why is this a one game thing?’ I might as well just leave them on. I wear those laces to the football every week now, and to the pub and the other social things that I do.
It is just important to be visible and who you are, because there could be someone out there who isn’t ‘out’ who sees that and thinks ‘great, when I am ready, I can do it because there are people out and showing that it is safe to be so’.
OTBC: What is your opinion of Norwich City in terms of the club’s recent record in supporting initiatives like this and making Carrow Road a safe place for everyone to visit?
ZN: I have never had any issues personally myself at Carrow Road. It has always seemed a nice club to be an openly LGBTQ fan. I believe the fan engagement, not just with the Proud Canaries group, but with all the fan groups has got much better in the last few years. That has been really pleasing to see the club wanting to get the fans involved because it creates that feeling of unity. Everybody wants to know that they are accepted and welcome at the football club.
OTBC: I thought it was interesting that you said you met up with the opposing LGBTQ+ group on matchday prior to the match. Do you find that most clubs Norwich City play against have LGBTQ+ groups or is that an area football, as a whole, still needs to work on?
ZN: I am not sure every club has an official (LGBTQ+) supporters’ group and then sometimes the club can have a Proud group and none of those people have got tickets. In those cases it is just us that meet up pre-match. From my point of view, I turn up quite regularly to these pre-match meet-ups and Proud Canaries have built up some quite good relationships with fans from other clubs. You make friends that you talk to and communicate with for the rest of time.
OTBC: And, finally, if you were to sum up what Carrow Road means to you what would you say?
ZN: It was hard when we were not allowed to go. I wanted things to get back to normal because it felt like going to the football was just what we do at weekends. You got to Carrow Road, you cheer your team on, you lose your voice, and you see your mates. It is somewhere to be and if someone were to ask me who I was, the first thing on my Twitter profile says: I am a Norwich City fan. It is that sense of belonging. It is my home. I see some of people on social media call Carrow Road their church and I can relate to that as well.