Around 160 supporters had the opportunity to quiz Norwich City’s coaching chiefs at Carrow Road this week – including one particularly keen young man.
Canaries head coach Dean Smith and his experienced assistant Craig Shakespeare provided the after-dinner entertainment at a three-course dinner provided by Delia’s Canary Catering in the Top of the Terrace lounge in the Barclay Stand.
Local journalist Alice Piper was posing the questions put forward by those who had purchased tickets for ‘An Evening with Deano and Shakey’ and the trio were unexpectedly joined on stage by a young lad named Hayden, who wanted to ask Smith what it was like to manage at Wembley.
From his 2019 play-off joy with boyhood club Aston Villa, Smith was able to tell the youngster that it was the “best feeling ever” among the many good-humoured moments of the evening.
"It was enjoyable. I'd much rather have done it at the end of a winning run when the atmosphere between everyone is a little more joyful," City’s head coach said ruefully after the event, with his team bottom of the Premier League.
"As a manager and an assistant manager, you're open to doing it all the time, especially at a football club like this where community is so important to us. I was open and I said to Alice before the event to ask any question and if we can't give you an answer then we won't give you an answer.
"I think we were as open as we could be up there."
Shakespeare gleefully told a tale of Smith - who is seven years younger - cleaning his boots, when they were both at Walsall as players in the late 1980s but the City boss insists memories of him buying his first car with Shakespeare’s Christmas tip were the product of a creative recollection.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in terms of numbers but it was a good turnout,” added Shakespeare, as he conducted his first media interviews since arriving in November.
“They didn’t go too bad for us, in terms of the questions. There were a few in there that were not contentious but inquisitive, shall we say.
“But you expect that, you’re at a football club in the Premier League and fighting for their lives to try and stay in it.”
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