Poppies Walk the Walk at The Walks

Somehow over the years, despite being from roughly the same region and trading umpteen players and even a few managers, we have actually played Kings Lynn quite rarely. Certainly since 1979 you can count the matches on the fingers of one hand (or if you’re from Kings Lynn, half a hand).  Back in the early 80’s there was a cup tie at Rockingham Road, memorable for me chiefly because I had my scarf nicked by one of the visiting nutters who roamed the ground that day.  One even tried to climb a floodlight, perhaps thinking it was some kind of fertility symbol.

Then we met in the Carl Shutt promotion season, when my main memory is of Lee Cowling scoring at their place and celebrating wildly, like this was his first ever goal.  Which thinking about it, could have been right. He looked only slightly more pleased when he turned up at the player of the year do a few weeks later accompanied by an absolute stunner.  We had long wondered ‘is there anything Lee Cowling brings to the party?’  This was his answer.

Now it was time for another trip, and if anyone thought this was small beer compared to festive derbies of days gone by, think again. With Norwich playing away, this was the biggest game in Norfolk bar none!  I could almost hear the excitement in Alan Partridge’s voice. Since our last visit, the stadium looked exactly the same which meant of course it was now 500% better than ours.

But who needs fripperies like terracing and a decent view, when the mighty Poppies are taking full advantage of a surface where the ball doesn’t bobble outrageously or get stuck in gloop. Dark horses for the playoffs?  Why not, so long as we keep winning a few more than we lose. The main challenge will be keeping our boys fit and fresh for the inevitable 20 games we must play in April, once Latimer Park has finally dried out.