Danny Mills doesn’t seem to like Norwich (Picture: Getty)

Since Norwich’s return to the ‘big time’ in 2011, there has always been an underlying sense of us being little more than tolerated by Match of the Day. The Swansea-love is something we can only dream of.

Any praise afforded the Canaries has often been delivered through gritted teeth and, particularly in the case of Alan Shearer, has invariably been accompanied by a contorted facial expression; as if chewing a wasp.

Such has been our regularity in the ‘and finally tonight…’ slot there have been occasions when we’ve slipped to first on The Football League Show. ‘Last on MoTD again…’ has become a Yellow Army catchphrase and often Messrs Lineker, Hansen and Shearer have given up the ghost by the time it comes to provide any time of analysis on City’s latest offering; the nightlife of Salford clearly offering a more palatable alternative.



But not content with mere indifference, Sunday’s Match of the Day 2, in the form of Danny Mills, upped the ante by delivering a damning, not to mention scathing, verdict on the Canaries 1-0 win over Spurs.


This particular son of Norfolk (yes, it is hard to believe) has quite rightly been given ‘the treatment’ since his shocking attempt on punditry on Sunday night’s show; the dear boy preferring to zoom on a few negatives rather than highlight the many positives in the Canaries best performance of the season.

Norwich’s win had holes picked in it (Picture: Getty)

Mills, for those who are understandably unaware, was born and raised in the Fine City and was offered his first shot at the pro game by the Canaries after having progressed through their youth system. His time in the yellow shirt was wholly unremarkable and, despite him making 73 first-team appearances, I can genuinely only recall one; a 3-2 League Cup win at Torquay in which he scored his only goal.

Having been unable to force his way into the City first-team on a regular basis at that time – his right-back slot at that time was the preserve of one Daryl Sutch – his decision to move on was understandable and uncontested. In fairness he went on to carve out a decent career away from his home county – it involved stopovers at Charlton, Leeds, Middlesborough and Man City – and amazingly went on to earn 19 England caps.

Tellingly however, his most notable and newsworthy act while on England duty was to be one of the eight players, while on tour in South Africa in 2003, who deemed themselves too precious to visit Nelson Mandela when offered the opportunity.

Alas, Mills has done his best to airbrush his Norwich roots from history and continues, whenever the opportunity presents itself, to stick the boot in to the Canaries; an opportunity that, on Sunday night, he simply found impossible to resist. His beef with City remains something of a mystery but the consensus seems to be it pertains to his lack of first-team opportunities.

When challenged about his Sunday night performance Danny Boy offered us only a ‘Roy Walker’: ‘I say it how I see it’.

Really? Instead when it comes to Mr Mills I’m more inclined, for once, to agree with MoTD’s Gary Lineker. ‘Utterly pointless’.

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