Norwich City Football club has paid tribute to one of its fans who spent more than thirty years welcoming and guiding people around Carrow Road and even longer supporting the club.

Allan Andrews, from Heartsease died on November 16, following a long battle with cancer.

A familiar face to many Norwich fans, the 71-year-old who was born in Norwich and a lifelong city fan spent many a match day welcoming and stewarding fans at the River End -now known as the Regency Security Stand- of the stadium.

Shaun Kelly, Mr Andrew's nephew, said many people would have recognised his uncle. He said: 'I should imagine he'd been down at the club for 38 years in total, he started off as normal steward then he progressed to a section head where he used to run the River End and then after that he became a tour guide.'

The 56-year-old added that his uncle had been more like a brother than an uncle to him. He said: 'Allan always has a smile on his face, I never saw him get wrong with anyone in 56 years, he'd rather smile, have a joke and a laugh. He didn't have a bad bone in him. He had green and yellow blood.'

Mr Kelly said one of his uncle's favourite city moments had been in 1993 when the club beat Bayern Munich but he was proud whenever the club were winning.

'When we got [the Munich] result he thought it was absolutely fantastic,' he said. 'Obviously when we went down to division one we were all pretty cut up about it, and when we went up two leagues he was pretty happy then too, but in general he was just yellow and green and while we were winning he was happy.'

In his last days, Mr Andrews was visited by his colleagues at Carrow Road, a gesture Mr Kelly said had meant the world to his uncle.

'The people from the club went up to see him in his last days, they've been absolutely fantastic, they took him a Norwich shirt and he laid on his bed in his shirt with a big smile on his face,' he said.

An NCFC spokesman added: 'Everyone at the club was saddened to hear of Allan's death and we are very grateful for his hard work and dedication as one of our matchday stewards and for carrying out our stadium tours for many years. Our thoughts are with Allan's family and friends at this time.'