Despite the FA Cup Third Round tie at Upton Park on Wednesday 15th January being postponed due to fog, our reserve-team were able to complete their away Combination match against Norwich City, after travelling to Norfolk the same evening despite the match originally being called off as well.
The circumstances in which the fixture was finally completed however, proved to be almost stranger than fiction. The referee, Mr. Bill Jordan, declared at 7 p.m.; 30 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time; that the match would not take place due to the possibility of fog coming down before the final whistle and left to go home. As the pitch was in good condition and both goals and all four comer-flags could be seen, as well as both clubs being desperate to play the game because of the long lay-off due to the Christmas break and then postponements resulting from the freezing weather conditions of early January, they mutually agreed; with the permission of the Secretary of The Combination who was present; to play the match.  Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Combination Secretary, did say that the match might have to be classified as a friendly but subsequently it has been agreed that it stands as a Combination League fixture. Norwich City therefore called upon a local referee and two assistant referees to officiate to the delight of about 1,000 fans who had turned up to watch.
At 7.50 p.m. the game finally kicked-off and we found ourselves two goals down after 29 minutes; both goals being scored by the Canaries in a ten minute spell by their Swedish triallist, striker Ulf Ottosson. Within a minute we had pulled one back when a move down the left resulted in a square ball from Rio Ferdinand reaching Lee Boylan who scored with a right-foot shot from close in.
After the interval we gained more possession by cutting out the errors that had marred an otherwise competent performance with the result that after 69 minutes we equalised. Lee Hodges broke from midfield and sent a defence splitting pass through to Ferdinand who coolly drew the goalkeeper before scoring. With two minutes to go before the final whistle a long ball out of defence was headed on by Ferdinand to Boylan. Our Republic of Ireland Youth international himself nodded on the pass to outpace the Canaries rear-guard before, crashing a first time volley into the top comer of the net from the edge of the penalty-area. As Coach Tony Carr said afterwards; "It was one of the finest goals I've seen for a long finish the game. It  crowned a great recovery by our lads to take the points."
Amongst our starting line - up were eight members of our youth squad; and a further three were on the subs, bench - two of whom made second-half appearances.