Kenny at 300:

Kenny McLean grades his famous goal in Norwich City's remarkable 3-2 victory over Manchester City back in September 2019 as his finest hour for the club.

After 300 games, two promotions and plenty of highs and lows, that header, rising between Raheem Sterling and Rodri to give the Canaries an early advantage over Pep Guardiola’s side, still stands out for the 34-year-old.

Goals from Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki secured an iconic victory for Daniel Farke's side, who were ravaged by injury and written off prior to kick-off.

As the Scottish international reminisced about his City career with the Pink Un, it was that header he picked out as his standout in yellow and green from a long list of achievements at Carrow Road.

"It's probably the one that everybody speaks to me about now," McLean said. "Probably the best individual isolated moment that I've had at the football club.

"At the time, City were unstoppable. We'd made a reasonable start in the Prem, obviously, in terms of the way we were playing. I think it took a lot of people by surprise. We didn't get all the results we wanted.

"On that day, we were hampered with injuries and nobody gave us a chance. But the place came alive and to score that goal and then to win the game. So it actually meant something was special. It's just one of the moments that will just never leave me. Even looking at this picture now, it's pretty special.

"You always need to go into the game with belief," he said. "I think it was Amadou and Godfrey as centre backs. We knew that even with a full squad, you're up against one of the best City sides that there's probably ever been.

"The odds were against us. But Carrow Road was special, and it has been a lot of my time here. But that was something else, something that just sticks in my mind about that day and that game and the whole occasion. It was great to also get the goal."

Despite that day in the sun, City went on to be relegated from the Premier League amid the Covid shutdown that kept fans out of stadiums across the world.

Kenny McLean leads the celebration after Norwich City's second Championship title win. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

McLean played a major role in the Championship campaign that followed, with City storming to the title as Emi Buendia, Teemu Pukki and a host of others shone in a season played against the backdrop of empty stadiums.

"The non-footballing aspect was obviously disappointing and out of everybody's control. But we still had to focus and concentrate on what we had to do and I think that season, even when you speak to people that we played against that year, they speak about how comfortable we'd done it and how easily we'd done it.

"Everything that we'd done that year, just through this class, and I think we were just too good. We were just too good for the rest of the league that year and I think we showed that.

"Obviously, it was my third year at the football club and I'd won two titles. It was a bit surreal, but I knew by this time that this was where the football club should have been. So it was about going and trying to sustain that and be better than the time before.

"That was another special season and it was one that we couldn't celebrate fully with the fans but we still celebrated a little bit behind closed doors, social distancing of course."

If the 2018/19 campaign was about champagne football, late winners and fighting against the odds, City's second title-winning side was built with one particular trait in mind: efficiency.

Kenny McLean and Grant Hanley with the Championship title after their title win in 2020/21. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

"That was the biggest part, the enjoyment that we got from that season. Obviously, the fans not being there takes so much enjoyment away from football but there were times where we would score a goal and it would feel so normal.

"We're looking, and Emi's constantly feeding Pukki, Skippy's doing my running for me. Everything just worked, everything clicked," McLean reflected.

"The dynamic of the team, it was so efficient. That was the main thing about that team: efficiency. We had such a good team, and we'd done it comfortably again.

"It seemed like we were just a little bit above the Championship level but just below the Premier League level. It was about trying to improve again."

After a 97-point haul in the 2020/21 campaign, spearheaded by Buendia and Pukki, City returned to the Premier League hoping to prove pundits wrong and show lessons had been learned.

A big-spending summer did little to change the narrative around the Canaries at the top-flight level. Farke was dismissed in November, and relegation was again the outcome.

"The first time we actually got some plaudits about the way we played, but there was a naivety there," McLean admitted.

"It was about learning from our mistakes, which maybe we didn't do quickly enough. I think when you have the experience of the past, you want to learn from it, you want to get better from it.

Norwich City's most recent Premier League campaign was a painful one that ended in relegation. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

"I don't think we've done that enough and that's why it made the next campaign so disappointing.

"It was a long season. You're putting yourselves up against the best, and that's where you want to be, but it became a long season and a bit of a slog at times. It was just one that we just, again, we weren't good enough. It's so hard to say that because it's something you don't want to be saying as a player or you don't want to be a squad or a team, but we just weren't, and that's as simple as that.

"We learnt our fate towards the end of the season and again, we had to come back down and try and go again."