Darren Eadie is pulled down by Leicester's Simon Grayson during his Premiership days with the Canaries.

Darren Eadie - Time for FA Cup run now Norwich City are safe in Premier League

David Cuffley Thursday, February 16, 2012
10:40 AM

Darren Eadie is confident Norwich City have enough Premier League points to accommodate a bit of FA Cup excitement – as his two former clubs prepare for fifth round battle.

The Canaries take on Leicester City at Carrow Road on Saturday (3pm), bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 1992, the year before Eadie made his first team debut. And the former player of the season believes Paul Lambert’s men can afford to go all out for a place in the last eight without having to worry about the effects on their top-flight progress.

“Cup competitions can be a bit of a distraction when you’re down the bottom end of the league, as Birmingham and Portsmouth have found, but once you’ve established yourselves – and Norwich are clearly safe in the Premier League now – I don’t think it can do anything but good,” said Eadie. “A good FA Cup run is brilliant. From a player’s point of view you want to achieve as much as you can in your career, so to get as far as you can in a competition like the FA Cup is a massive bonus.

“It makes things a little bit easier that things are going so well in the Premier League. A good Cup run can also feed into your league form. It’s not often we get the chance to talk about it. It’s been a great achievement by the boys in the league but it would be great to get into the quarter-finals or semi-finals of the FA Cup and maybe have a chance of getting into the final. The last few years there has often been a so-called lesser team making the final and we’d like to be one of those this year.”

Eadie, 36, speaking at yesterday’s Community Sports Foundation event – he is the charity’s latest ambassador – never went beyond the fifth round in his Norwich career, which brought him 204 senior appearances and 38 goals.

But he did go one step further with Leicester in 2001, within two rounds of the first final to be held in Cardiff, before they were on the wrong end of a shock result.

“Unfortunately I was in the Leicester team that lost to Wycombe at home in the quarter-finals,” he said.

“It was very disappointing to get that far and not get any further. I think when you get to the fifth round you start to believe you can do it. In the earlier rounds you play to get into the next round but when you get to the fifth round you start looking a little bit further to Wembley.”

He also featured in the Norwich side the last time they met Leicester in the FA Cup, a 2-1 fourth round defeat at Filbert Street in 1997: “It’s one of those games you try to forget when you lose. I always try to remember the ones that we won,” he said.

“I hope Norwich will be getting one back on them on Saturday. I played for both clubs and have a foot in both camps, but I think no Leicester fan will begrudge me supporting Norwich as I was here as a kid, came through the ranks and spent a lot of time here.”

Despite that, Eadie retains an affection for Leicester, the club he joined in 1999 for £3m, playing 47 games before injury ended his career prematurely in 2003.

“I’ve always seen Leicester as a very similar size club to Norwich. When I left Norwich and went to Leicester, it was an easy fit because they were in the Premier League at the time, a family-run club like Norwich,” he said.

“I was really optimistic about them at the start of the season with the kind of signings Sven-Goran Eriksson made but it hasn’t worked out and Nigel Pearson has come in and steadied the ship.

“If you asked them, they’d rather be challenging at the top of the Championship than having this Cup run but if they’re mid-table a good FA Cup run is just as important to them as it is to us.”

As for a prediction: “I’d have to go with Norwich because they’re playing incredible football at the minute. The silver lining for me is that if Norwich do happen to lose it can be to someone like Leicester – but I’d like to see Norwich win first.”

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23 comments

Heartbroken as an 11-year-old listening on the wireless to the end of the '59 Cup Run; sad to see us lose at Wembley in '73 and '75. Reckon we'll be all right tomorrow, BUT our best "Cup Run" has been the last 30 months!

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atlanta canary

Saturday, February 18, 2012
As I said, Crab, you come across on the etherwaves as a young-at-heart and mind person! You have often enlightened me on items that I couldn`t fathom! Yes, that Milk Cup Final v Sunderland morphed into the "Friendship Cup", didn`t it? Because of that famous way the opposing fans got on with each other. (I`ve been to a League match v Sunderland way back, where opposing fans were cosily comparing allotments over their half-time "snap"). Friendly indeed. Ref. your Final, Asa Hartford scored the only goal and we got relegated that year! I remember the pundit`s gaffe when he described Hartford as a "whole-hearted player" when it was common knowledge that he did indeed have a "hole" in his heart. That Scottish player I saw in one of the other finals (Spurs or Villa) was Jim Blair. You inspired my recall circuits. Only a youngster, too. 64 in June if I make it. Keep up the Lateral Thinking, Crab! OTBC.

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Mad Brewer

Friday, February 17, 2012
It's only the body that's getting on a bit MB - but even that's fully functional!! Age is only a state of mind! My mind is still as sharp as ever - as I'm sure you'll agree. Yes, it's true, I left my schooldays behind me aged 17 in the Summer of '59, and eventually started my first job on 13 October that same year. I will be 70 at the end of March.Did nobody see the Cup Final at Wembley against Sunderland - the "friendly Final" - the one we won? ! Does nobody remember the 200-a-side fotball match against their supporters in the stadium car park? Or drinking and dancing together in the streets with the Maccams before and after the game. Heady times indeed!!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I'm confident about Leicester, Dons was a fluke, we dispatched Burnley calmly enough

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bristolcanary88

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I remeber "Blair's got flair", not much though

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Swiss Canary

Thursday, February 16, 2012
My first final was the League Cup 2nd leg against Rochdale in 1962 -we won 1-0 on aggregate.First FA Cup match against Leicester in 1963 part of the record attendace with my father.Never forgotten poor old Terry Allcock's penalty miss high into the Barclay Stand.The attendance was widely held to be far more than that recorded from fans' experience which was feet off the ground and go with the flow of the rest of the crowd like corn in the wind.Safety at football grounds was based on luck and survival of the fittest.The FA Cup came as a blessing though as the rivers and broads had frozen for weeks in the worst winter in my living memory.

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Peter Watson

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Seen soo much for one so young, Swiss! tttaxi. I too attended those league cup finals. Two big let-downs! Now is our time! Remember a forward called Blair who did little but fall over.Congrats to Crab for bypassing the Big Ks! Did you really leave school in `59? You sound a young-thinking person for one so old! OTBC.

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Mad Brewer

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Seen the boys at Wembley twice....lost to both Aston Villa and Spurs.....a cup final would be nice while I'm still above ground!!! OTBC.

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tom the taxi

Thursday, February 16, 2012
And they let that through! Amazing! Well, I don't care now - I've put across the points I wanted to make, so "yah boo sucks" to die GrossKontrolleren!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Well I don't know! the two offerings below were the first two bits of a complete posting that was ethered, so I thought I'd try it in bits. Those two have got through, but a really innocuous final bit about what I was doing in 59 (just leaving school) and who I supported then (Kingstonian) has been ethered! Twice! What don't you like GrossKontrolleren? The reference to 1959, or the fact that I supported a non-league team - Up the K's ! My nearest Football League teams in those days were Fulham and Chelsea - and nobody supported them then!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
On the subject of the '59 Cup Run - (will they never stop talking about that?) - that was the year I left Grammar School and started my first job! I watched Kingstonian on the odd Saturday afternoon, and had never heard of Norwich!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
@ canaryjon - And do you really think that come 4 matches from the end of the season we will only be 12 points clear of the bottom 3 places? That would require our record between now and then being as bad as you can expect theirs to be. Somehow I think that safety point will be reached long before then. In fact would you give me 50-1 that we won't be safe before we play Fulham on 31 March?

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
@ canaryjon - as I've said before (to that buffoon, billythebookie), it's a good job league positions, and hence relegation or safety, is decided by league points won, and not bookies' odds!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
@ canaryjon - as I've said before (to that buffoon, billythebookie), it's a good job league positions, and hence relegation or safety, is decided by league points won, and not bookies' odds! And do you really think that come 4 matches from the end of the season we will only be 12 points clear of the bottom 3 places? That would require our record between now and then being as bad as you can expect theirs to be. Somehow I think that safety point will be reached long before then. In fact would you give me 50-1 that we won't be safe before we play Fulham on 31 March? On the subject of the '59 Cup Run - (will they never stop talking about that?) - that was the year I left Grammar School and started my first job! I watched Kingstonian on the odd Saturday afternoon, and had never heard of Norwich!

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The Crab

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Agree Soglio Star,West Ham went down with 42 points a few years back,mathmatically we probably wont be safe until about 4 games to go (12 points clear of bottom 3) however the bookies have us at 50-1 to be relegated,better than 4-6 on as we started the season

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canaryjon

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Is it ok for a youngster to join in? I missed 'The Cup Final' by 1 month. Hmm .. another exCity player offering an opinion! Certainly too arly to count chickens, that should happen at Easter...

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Soglio Star

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Sounds like I'm too young to join in this coversation, having missed 'the cup final' by 1 month. Can't believe an ex-City player having an opinion reported in the local press! what ever next?!

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Soglio Star

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I was too young to see the cup run but felt that I was there as the local small farmers used to gather in our kitchen in the 60s and inevitably, the conversation ended up on "The Cup Run". I did not get my Rumsey Wells trip until the summer of 1966, still basking in the glories of the World Cup Final.

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Swiss Canary

Thursday, February 16, 2012
canaryjon, as long as we do not repeat the MK Dons fiasco! The team you suggest is certainly good enough to win! Timbo, as ever you are spot-on. Swiss, how old ARE you? I saw the`59 Cup Run and my first Grammar school uniform came from H. Rumsey Wells. Also 1959. Hope your`re not another Ged ego.

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Mad Brewer

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I think Lambert will make 7 changes for Sat with Steer,Barnett,Lappin,Johnson,Crofts,Morro and Vaughan all coming in.Lambert is not worried about the cup just Premier League survival-but still a good team that could win-any thoughts

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canaryjon

Thursday, February 16, 2012
He can sit with me in the Barclay. They let us listen to the Luton game on the wireless at school. Them were the days.

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cutty

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I can feel my father's ghost getting all stirred up about "The Cup Run". Watch out for a spectre in a trench coat and a Rumsey-Wells Doggie Cap floating around the Main Stand on Saturday.

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Swiss Canary

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Hmmm...much as I like Mr. Eadie I think he's guilty of a little pre-hatched chicken counting if he thinks we're "clearly safe in the Premier". A couple more wins + I'll start getting more noisy on that score. In the meantime let's go after Leicester with maximum aggression. About time we won the FA Cup !

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Timbo

Thursday, February 16, 2012