Norwich City 4 - 1 Brighton - Fortress Carrow the return, while the Seagulls have the blues!!
Confidence is high at the moment at Carrow Road, and that’s down to two things the fans, and the team!
Paul Lambert was quick to acknowledge the behind the feel good factor which has engulfed the canaries since walking through the door in August.
Lambert said “I say it every week and will keeping saying it till the day I leave, the fans were fantastic tonight. They have been since I arrived. This is a big football club and the fans of this football club are right behind the team 100%.”
He also went on to add “The group of lads at this club have been fantastic and they need to keep that up. It’s about a unit, a team not the three strikers. You ask them how thankful they are for their team mates who do the leg work for them.”
Brighton to their credit did not put eleven men behind the ball. They did push the canaries more then the result would suggest at times in the game.
Gus Poyet has long job in front of him. The defence at times looked at sea when the canaries stormed forward in numbers, and were confused when pulled to shreds by quality that is oozing through the canaries side at the moment.
The game started with Norwich knowing from the seagull’s previous fixtures that early goals could be important? Brighton also missing Nicky Forster who has rediscovered his goal scoring form of late was missing due to injury.
The question was answered by the canaries after only 3 minutes Grant Holt cut inside left of the box to give a neat chip over the grounded keeper into the right hand corner to send the yellow and green army going crazy! 15 goals for the canaries skipper a nice return on his transfer fee already.
The canaries kept pushing the seagulls hard and it was the man who was doing the most damage in the final third with his tricky feet and Darren Brown skills, on 22 minutes skipping the 18 yard box, before cutting inside and tucking under the approaching keeper. 2-0 and Hoolahan’s 10th goal of the season and with the canaries finally seeing the wee lads full potential on show since his return under his former boss Lambert.
The third on 60 minutes was a comedy of errors with the seagulls giving away a free kick just inside the canaries half to which Lappin whipped in a trade mark left cross into a frantic box, with all eyes on the war fare going on in the box and Holt, and Askou bundled to the ground, just as penalty was on the tongue the young defender Elphick dived to clear only putting it in his own net past the looks of his keeper. 3 – 1 and the fortress Carrow Road returned!!
7 minutes later the game was wrapped up with the third striker getting his tenth of the season. Chris Martin who himself is on fire at the moment back to his best form since stepping out of the youth team, he cut in from the left to unleash a 20 yard drive which flew past the diving keeper. 4-1 job done!!!
The game did see Brighton score just after half time a un tidy tap in, and also see a 20 man WWF style brawl with Russell in the heart of it, but really nothing more then handbags at twenty paces but did add to the excitement!
Results went Norwich’s way and stepped them up to 4th in the league and with only half season nearly has gone having a striking partnership that has served up 35 goals between them, not a bad start for the Scottish master.
But as Adam Drury was quick to point out “Course we want to be pushing now for a top two finish and go straight up, but as the manager keep reminding us there is still a long way to go.”
When asked is Fortress Carrow Road back? He answered a simple “Yes.”
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