Lambert proud of team effort

Paul Lambert heaped praise on his Norwich players after they recorded a 2-1 win away to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

Norwich took the lead through Andrew Surman two minutes before half-time in the English Premier League match at The Hawthorns.

Hosts West Brom levelled through a Shane Long penalty in the 68th minute.

But Steve Morison secured all three points for the visitors when he scored with 11 minutes remaining.

“I thought the lads were excellent,” Lambert said.

“They defended really strongly when they had to and counter-attacked really quickly, which was great.”

“With the first goal Wes Hoolahan plays in the cross and it still has to be finished, which Surman does perfectly well.”

“For the second, (Grant) Holt does fantastically for us and then what a header from Morison, because he has to get above a defender and beat the goalkeeper.”

Norwich’s seventh win of the season leaves them ninth, a position exceeding expectations for a team playing in the third tier as recently as 2010.

“I’m pretty sure everyone thought we would be in the bottom three at this point,” he said.

“We came up from League One really quick, so to be ninth is terrific for this team.”

West Brom boss Roy Hodgson felt his team were good value for their equaliser, and did enough to take at least a point from the match.

“I thought the way we equalised was a just reward for the effort that we that made, but then we got caught on another counter-attack and Norwich were able to hang on for the victory,” he said.

“I’m sure with their organisation and determination, their manager feels they deserved it, but for us, it feels a bit harsh.”

“There was a ball cleared off the line and their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves, whereas ours wasn’t really involved too much.”

“But that’s football – we have to get over it, deal with it and try to get ourselves back into winning ways, in particular at The Hawthorns.”