Welcome to the “Tour Of The 72” series, where I attempt to visit every EFL ground to find the greatest football experience there is to offer and rate each ground on five different factors: Pricing, Atmosphere & Quality of the game, Food, Facilities and the overall experience of the matchday. Our first edition took us to Carrow Road, home of Norwich City FC, as they took on West Bromwich Albion on the 1st of October 2025 in the EFL Championship. Strangely, this was my first visit to Carrow Road, despite the ground being located just an hour and a half away from my where I live.
Pricing: 6/10
An adult admission ticket for this fixture was £32.75 in the Lower Tier of the Regency Security stand which I opted to sit in (although I had hoped to sit in the Lower Barclay stand, as I heard this was where the atmosphere was created), which I’m fairly sure is pretty much the average for an EFL Championship fixture after a little bit of research. The view of the game from my seat on the other hand was top class, sitting two rows from the back of the lower tier, giving me a perfect view of the pitch over the goal, whilst simultaneously feeling close to the action.
It seems to be the same price throughout the stadium, even in the restricted view areas, and these prices could have been one of the main factors as to why the stadium felt slightly emptier than expected. Norwich’s average capacity filled is between ninety-five and ninety-seven percent on average, however there were large chunks of seats unoccupied, particularly the stand that contains the away fans.
A programme cost £4, slightly steep in my opinion, but I respect Norwich fully for still producing a proper matchday programme rather than exclusively a digital one, whilst the food inside the stadium was also pretty average price wise, with a pie and a pint costing around £8 combined,
Atmosphere: 5/10
Prior to kick-off, the atmosphere felt reasonably upbeat, walking around the ground people seemed reasonably enthusiastic about the upcoming game, despite Norwich losing every single home fixture ahead of this midweek game-week. Once in the ground, the seats filled slowly (as expected for a midweek fixture), and a few chants were sung from the Barclay Stand as kick-off approached, albeit most of them about their dislike towards local-rivals Ipswich Town ahead of the East-Anglian derby four days later.
One quite strange thing I remember thinking during the warmups was how enjoyable the pre-match playlist was being blasted from the speakers, I’d guess they employ a DJ to mix a few tunes together, as it was a mashup of a few Early 2010s dance anthems, which I was certainly a fan of!
I can’t forget to mention, the most famous chant associated with Norwich, which was belted out during the kick-off, with fans holding their scarfs in the air singing “On The Ball City” at the top of their voices, which I believe is the oldest football chant in the world. This atmosphere however, quickly turned sour, as Norwich fell behind early in the first-half, leading supporters to express their discontent towards manager Liam Manning and his style of football. Toxicity rapidly increased as frustrations grew at the lack of urgency for a goal, and once the full-time whistle went, supporters joined in with the West Brom chants of “F****** Useless” towards the players!
I’d likely just gone on a bad day, but I did expect a little bit better from The Canaries.
Stadium Food: 9.5/10
For a club that used to be owned by celebrity chef Delia Smith, I had high expectations going into this, purposely leaving plenty of room to indulge in what they had to offer. Asking a couple of people in the vicinity, they all recommended Willy’s Pies, who also happen to be the sleeve sponsor of their home shirts.
Outside the ground, there was a burger van outside the club shop which seemed to be doing great business, capitalising on passers-by, as well as a pop-up stand around the opposite side, selling cakes and biscuits. If you are feeling particularly posh, there is also a restaurant joining onto the stadium, however I was unable to fully gauge what sort of food was available in there as I didn’t feel fancy enough!
After plenty of consideration, I opted for a beef and cheddar pie and a “gourmet” sausage roll, and let me tell you this, the beef and cheddar pie was undoubtably within the top three pies I have eaten in a football stadium. From the pastry to the filling, it was absolutely divine and well and truly hit the spot, fuelling me up for an Autumn’s evening of football under the floodlights.
Facilities: 6.5/10
My main takeaway from Carrow Road is that it is very decent stadium for the Championship, with plenty of facilities nearby on the retail park opposite the ground, such as a Morrisons to stock up on booze, McDonalds and couple of coffee chains, as well as being located right near the train station, benefiting away fans or home supporters making the trek, saving them time walking through the city.
One thing I did notice was missing, was a sort of “fan zone” area for younger supporters or even for the older supporters needing their matchday beer, to remain entertained before kick-off, however just a couple of day after my visit, they announced plans to develop a new fan-zone located behind the Barclay Stand, upgrading the layout to not just be benches dotted around for supporters to drink their beer at.
In terms of inside the ground, it’s pretty much the standard layout the ground, with plenty of areas in the concourse to gather without causing disruption. My only slight complaint, is the digital ticket system, leaving many people struggling to get their tickets properly scanned causing minor disruptions going into the ground, in fact it took me a couple of attempts to somehow fit my paper ticket into the gap!
Tour Overall Experience: 7.5/10
Overall, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my evening (albeit most Norwich supporters clearly didn’t), being able to watch some great Championship talent perform, and watch some low stress football, without having to worry about the result. There was an essence of community spirit amongst supporters, as most seemed to know each other that sat around them, catching up with them during the intervals, which is always a pleasant experience at any football ground.
In the context of the game, at times it felt like West Brom allowed Norwich to attack, sitting back for a majority of the second half, inviting pressure as they picked up Norwich’s weakness in the attacking midfield areas, with Marcondes, Schwartau and Crnac struggling to create any chances against a pretty solid Baggies defence. Despite the low scoreline, the game was still entertaining, with both sides having spells of domination, but my standout player in my opinion was West Brom’s loanee Samuel Iling-Junior, who’s pace caused havoc for the Norwich defence.
As the game progressed, you could really sense a dramatic increase in frustration as the minutes passed by, with Manning’s style of play still yet to click, not being helped by a few key players being out for lengthy spells on the sidelines, but he still remains Norwich gaffer at the time of writing, even though he was the first Norwich manager to lose an East Anglian Derby since 2009.
Lineups:
Norwich City: Kovacevic, Stacey, Cordoba, Darling, Stacey (Mahovo), McLean (Topic), Mattsson, Schwartau (Makama), Marcondes (Jurasek), Crnac, Sargent
West Brom: Griffiths, Campbell, Mepham, Phillips, Taylor (Collyer), Mowatt (Bielek), Molumby, Iling-Junior (Gilchrist), Price, Johnston (Wallace), Maja (Heggebo)
Goalscorer: Maja (20)
Attendance 24,640
Final Total
34.5/50
