You’re looking at a sign that’s famous! Our very own Alison, whose family are all Norwich FC mad, made it with her own fair hands. And the folk at Wembley were so impressed by her wit that they put it on the screen, where Delia herself saw it – she was being interviewed by Radio 5L at the time, so it went all national on us. Then a Sun journalist tweeted it. Which is all just dandy and iced that promotion cake nicely.
The hair-splitters may point out that if ‘Delia’ was ‘Delia’ then ‘Neil’ should have been ‘Alex’. What they don’t know is that this sign was originally created for Norwich’s last play-off final – at Cardiff, under Nigel Worthington. We lost that one, but the Haynes family, thrifty to the end, held onto the sign (at the back of a cupboard). Some fool (aka Steve, Alison’s other half) suggested adapting it for 2015. So ‘Cardiff’ became ‘Wembley’. But it seemed easier to make ‘Nigel’ ‘Neil’ (rather than ‘Alex’). As it turned out, it would have been much easier to have started from scratch. But then, would the result have been the same?
Now I’m not superstitious, but I call on all sensible Norwich fans to beg the Haynes family to hang on to the sign for the next Wembley trip… Be nice to think next time they won’t need to change the names…
By the way, the sign reads: ‘Delia did it in the kitchen, Neil did it in Wembley.’