LEAGUE DEBUT

I made my League debut, in a journalistic sense, on Boxing Day, 1959, having joined the EDP in Norwich four months' earlier. Football reporting was not new to me, for I had been sports editor of two weekly newspapers in south Lincolnshire for three years; but reporting League matches certainly was a fresh experience.
In a sense I was biding my time, having announced that I was interested in taking over the role of Norwich City soccer correspondent. But there were two experienced scribes ahead of me, and little sign of an imminent breakthrough. So I was stuck on the sports desk helping the evening paper with their racing coverage, a tedious desk-bound job which involved little more than subbing an endless stream of racecards and teleprinter slips of runners and riders. With no interest in or knowledge of racing, I hated it.
Then, with the Christmas period looming, the tentative question was asked whether I would like to cover the Mansfield v Norwich City Second Division match on Boxing Day. It would be a good experience, they said. I soon ascertained (a) that snow was forecast, and (b) that neither of the regular correspondents, with family commitments looming, wanted to go. So I said 'yes', and then started to worry about it.
In the end I went to my parents' home in south Lincolnshire to prepare for the trip. My brother-in-law volunteered to come with me to help with the navigating, sandwiches were packed and flasks of hot soup prepared. And after a long and occasionally difficult drive - there was more mud than snow in this particular neck of the woods - we arrived at the Mansfield ground in good time, warmed ourselves up as best we could, and found the Mansfield Press box. There were only a couple of other journalists there.
It was the practice in those days that when the Canaries had an away game at the same time as a reserve match at Carrow Road, then a booked telephone call would be made every 15 minutes or so to keep City's home crowd, watching the reserves, up-to-date with what the first team were doing.
I expect I was tense on my League debut. I don't know because I can't remember. Anyway, when a call did come through I heard the voice of the Canaries' then club secretary, Bert Westwood. 'How're they doing?' he asked. I said it was 0-0, and then looked up just in time to see Jimmy Hill slide the ball into the Mansfield net. 'No. Hill's just scored. Norwich leading 1-0,' I shouted excitedly. Bert slammed down the receiver. Then, seconds later, I watched in horror as the referee whistled for off-side and gave Mansfield a free-kick.
It took several minutes to get back in touch with Carrow Road, and when I did I explained the problem to Bert. He was very matter-of-fact about it. 'Well, its already gone out on the loudspeakers,' he said, 'so the crowd thinks City are winning and that Hill scored.' After a while, and because we couldn't think of anything else, we decided to do nothing.
My luck was in that day. Later on during the match Jimmy Hill did score, and although I can't remember the actual result, it seemed as though the gods had smiled. The drive back to an increasingly snowy Lincolnshire was tricky, though, but I dropped off my brother-in-law and then faced another long drive, to Norwich, where it was straight to the office to write up the match report.
It all worked out in the end, though it makes me smile to think of those fans at a Norwich City reserves game who received news of a Jimmy Hill goal long before it actually happened.