Norwich boss David Wagner delighted to ‘put things right’ with clinical display

Posted Thursday, December 14, 2023 by PA

Norwich head coach David Wagner was delighted to see his side bounce back from a frustrating result at the weekend by beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 at Carrow Road.

The Canaries lacked a cutting edge in a goalless draw with Preston but took their chances well against the Owls to stay on the fringes of the Championship play-off zone.

“Four days ago I spoke about how frustrated I was about not taking our chances, so to put things right at the very first opportunity is very pleasing and just the way it should be,” Wagner said.

“We scored three wonderful goals, created a lot of other opportunities and also defended well, even though their set pieces caused us one or two problems.

“We scored a great goal early on and could have had more but we didn’t make it easy for ourselves and conceded an equaliser.

“It is always pleasing in those circumstances when you then go on and win the game.

“We responded well to the setback, kept our tempo, kept believing and got the result we deserved.

“We have done well in our last six games, and also did well in the first six games of the season.

“In between could have been better but now we must keep this going, making sure our performances are at a consistent level.

“We now have a big derby game (at Ipswich) and everyone is really looking forward to that.”

Norwich were set on their way by a superb seventh-minute strike from Borja Sainz, who was making his full debut after his summer move to Carrow Road.

He found the top corner with a rising drive from just outside the box to open the scoring, although Wednesday responded well and got back on level terms just past the half-hour mark with a back-post header from teenager Bailey Cadamarteri.

Norwich got their noses in front just after the restart when Ashley Barnes slid home Sainz’s left-wing cross and gave themselves some breathing space after 72 minutes, Jonathan Rowe taking advantage of some poor defending to nod home his ninth of the season.

The defeat brought to an end Wednesday’s mini revival of seven points from a possible nine, but manager Danny Rohl took the result on the chin.

“I am okay with my players after that, even though I am obviously disappointed with the result,” he said.

“Now we must recover and be ready to go again on Saturday when we have another big game (at home to fellow strugglers QPR).

“In each half we had early goals to deal with and that didn’t help us, especially in the second half when we had just changed things.

“I thought we did a lot of things very well, although our pressing wasn’t sharp enough and at times our positioning wasn’t good enough.

“We tried everything but in the end it wasn’t enough and our opponents were better in the box and deserved the win.”

Rohl paid tribute to young goalscorer Cadamarteri, who committed his long-term future to the club earlier this week.

“He now has two goals in four games and clearly is a young player with a lot of potential. He deserves his contract and it proves we are looking to the future at this club.”