Their success owed much to playing a settled side, week in and week out. The team also had perfect balance, with two wingers capable of delivering the crosses for centre forward, Terry Bly to score the goals, which are vital if games are to be won.
Last Saturday at Coventry there were encouraging signs that Glenn Roeder has assembled a squad of players capable of creating the kind of chances that Terry Bly would have tucked away without a second thought. Since his era a string of strikers who have worn the Norwich number 9 shirt and notched up impressive numbers of goals.
After Saturday's failure to finish, the Norwich manager made it clear that he intended to bring in a player this week who is a proven goal scorer, leaving Curo, Arturo and OJ to fight it out for a supporting role.
The Carling Cup tie against MK Dons will give Glenn a chance to shuffle the numbers and perhaps one or more of those players who failed to find the net on Saturday will be given an opportunity to make amends. Who knows, perhaps the goals will come that could launch a cup run to better that of the 59ers. We certainly need something to erase memories of recent seasons in which early cup exits have been all too common.
Another feature of 1959 was the weather. Unlike this year, Summer began in April and lasted until October. I had a job on the seafront at Hunstanton, which involved working on the Boating Lake for a few days each week, where I would sometimes have to call out: "Come in number 9, your time is up!" In common with most Canary fans, especially those who travelled in high hopes to Coventry, I would now rephrase that command and cry: "Come in number 9 your time has come - whoever you are?"