Barry Skipper may have given up his place around the boardroom table at Carrow Road, but has no intentions of taking a back seat as far as watchign the Canaries is concerned.

Barry Skipper may have given up his place around the boardroom table at Carrow Road, but has no intentions of taking a back seat as far as watching the Canaries is concerned.

After all, the fruits of one of his labours in the yellow and green cause is still very much a part of life at Carrow Road - Darren Huckerby.

Skipper was instrumental in bringing to an end Huckerby's protracted move to Norwich from Manchester City in the winter of 2003 and remembers the moment he knew City had got their man.

"I had a lot of conversations with Kevin Keegan at the time," he recalled.

"It was Christmas Eve and we were getting to a bit of a stand-off and I went to Cringleford Church with my family and grandsons and when I came out and switched my mobile on again I had got 11 missed calls - and they were all from Hucks' agent.

"Suddenly that made me feel the balance was swinging, so I spent a bit of Christmas Eve chatting to him and Hucks turned up on Boxing Day.

"You get a kick from that because that is high proifle, but that apart I have introduced some professional lenders to the club and I have been involevd in discussion with banks and that and those are the things I have really enjoyed as well because I have felt that was something I could make a contribution to."

Skipper was one of the original Gang of Five which rode to the rescue during the tumultous final days of the Robert Chase era, but says he believes now is the right time to step aside.

"All good things come to an end," he said. "I think we have to be realistic:

five of us came on at the same time, we had a board until today of six, four of us are in our 60s and you do have to retire some time. At the outset when we all came on brand spanking new, Geoffrey Watling said to me it was not like any other business that I had been involved in, knowing I had been involved in a few, and he was right, God bless him.

"The learning curve we went through to begin with was huge and I don't think we ever ought to put ourselves in that position again. If we are now going to start a gradual change that makes a lot of sense."