Worthy cause for a party

[Huckerbys right foot]

Nigel Worthington is not a man given to flamboyant celebrations, but on Wednesday evening he found himself at the centre of the mother of all parties.
On the night his Norwich City team sealed promotion to the Premiership, thanks to a result more than 100 miles away in south London, Worthington opted for a quiet night out watching his reserves play at Carrow Road.


Trouble was, more than 3,000 Canaries fans joined him, as well as more television cameras than have been seen at Norwich's ground since those heady days more than 10 years ago when Bayern Munich and Inter Milan were given footballing lessons in unlikely surroundings.

Not that Worthington minded the company of his club's long-suffering supporters nor even that of the press.

"It's been a hectic night," he told BBC Sport after umpteen media interviews and one very deep breath.

"About 3,000 supporters have been down here, in great form and good voice, and there's been loads of press.

"But I've enjoyed it - it's only right that you give time to people who have been with you through thick and thin. It's just part of the job you have got to do and enjoy."

Worthington, the 43-year-old former Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds and Northern Ireland defender, was unmoved by the constant updates on Carrow Road's scoreboard from Crystal Palace's win over Sunderland.

He was only interested in the final score which confirmed both Norwich's promotion and his achievement of something memorable after a long hard season.

"We knew what was happening, between people having radios and the scoreboard at Carrow Road. I was focused on the final whistle - that's when it really mattered," he said.

"We've done the job ourselves because we had an excellent result and performance here at the weekend against Walsall. We've done our job well, and other people have not done their jobs.

"But thank you to Iain Dowie and Crystal Palace. Obviously they are chasing the play-offs now themselves and after that result I wish them well and hope they do achieve it."

Worthington still has work to do, this term. He desperately wants to pip his old Wednesday colleague, and West Brom boss, Gary Megson to the title.

"I wanted to secure promotion and now that we've done that, with four games to go, it will be a dog-fight between ourselves and West Brom to try and get the title.

"We can hopefully now relax, play good football and try to gain the title, as no doubt West Brom will be as well. There's a job still to be done."

The job started in December 2000 when Worthington - despite only a brief spell in charge of Blackpool previously - saved Norwich from relegation in his first half season.

In his first full campaign he took them to the First Division play-off final, where they lost on penalties to Birmingham, and after missing out on the top six last term, it has been wall-to-wall success this time around.

Being given £1m to spend on three strikers - Darren Huckerby, Mathias Svensson and Leon McKenzie - at the turn of the year by a board that includes millionaire chef Delia Smith clearly helped.

But Norwich had been in the Division One doldrums for four-and-a-half years before Worthington took over, and under much more experienced managers who could never quite get them even into the play-offs.

So what else has he done that others before him did not?

"The one thing I've tried to achieve and put into the football club is team spirit - people working together, wanting to be successful and working towards that," he said.


"It's not 'I', it's 'we' at this football club. It's teamwork. We've all worked very, very hard together.

"When I've gone to the board because I felt we needed to add to the group that we had, they have been very, very supportive.

"I think they could see there was something happening early on this season. We've done it stage by stage and eventually we have secured promotion which is great.

"I'm delighted for the supporters and the directors. Everyone has worked together.

"The people who have put time and money into this football club have had some reward and hopefully some great memories from it as well."