David Wagner delighted with overdue home win and performance

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by PA

Norwich head coach David Wagner was delighted to see his side finally give the Carrow Road faithful something to cheer as his side saw off Hull 3-1 to boost their Championship promotion bid.

Home struggles were a feature of the final months of Dean Smith’s spell in charge, while Wagner lost his first two to take the run without a win up to eight, but that all changed as the Canaries, despite going behind early on, turned on the style to record a comfortable win.

“I understand this was the first time we have won here since October so obviously it gives everyone a big boost – as does the way we got the win,” he said. “I would say it is the best we have played since I have been here and I am delighted with the performance.

“We played to our strengths, played to our identity – scored some good goals, created a lot of chances and we were also very sharp in defence, not giving them another clear chance after they had taken the lead.

“I thought we were relentless out there and hopefully it will give us the confidence to win again when we are back here next week (against Birmingham). But before that we have another important game at Wigan and we will turn to focus on that now.”

Wagner revealed that joint top scorer Teemu Pukki, who was dropped to the bench to make way for Adam Idah, was now a doubt for the trip north.

“I had a chat with Teemu and told him he didn’t look as fresh as usual at the weekend and he agreed,” he said.

“The idea was to introduce him at some stage but he felt his calf at half-time and was unable to warm up so we couldn’t bring him on. It’s something we will have to check on before the Wigan game.”

Hull stunned their hosts by taking the lead on 14 minutes as poor defending at a corner saw the ball drop kindly for Jacob Greaves, who fired into the roof of the net.

But Norwich equalised four minutes later through Kieran Dowell, whose shot from an Onel Hernandez cutback took a big deflection off Greaves before going in, and from then on it was one-way traffic.

Gabriel Sara finally made it 2-1 just before the hour mark with a powerful low drive following another Hernandez assist, and Josh Sargent cracked home his 11th of the season a couple of minutes from time.

Hull boss Liam Rosenior had no complaints about the result.

“It was a tough night for us,” he admitted. “For the first the time since I have been here I have to say we were beaten by the better side and Norwich deserved the three points.

“I usually celebrate our goals but I didn’t when we went one up because from minute one we were on the back foot against a very good team.

“They may have been on a bad run at home but that doesn’t alter the fact that David is a very good manager and he has some very good players to call on. I would certainly expect them to be in the top six.

“We were up against a top side but performance-wise, it was not us – we can do better than that, even though I have no argument about the result.

“We had been on a good run and now it’s all about the reaction – the lads have been superb for us since I have been here and the challenge now is to go on another run, starting on Saturday.”