Norwich Steer-ed in right direction

Paul Lambert praised goalkeeper Jed Steer for his ‘world-class saves’ as Norwich City beat West Brom 2-1 at the Hawthorns.

Debutant Steer tipped Jerome Thomas’ shot on to the bar in the first-half and showed some excellent handling under pressure.

But it was his two stops at the end – first denying Shane Long with a diving save before keeping out Joe Mattock’s shot – which secured his side’s passage to the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Norwich took the lead thanks to Grant Holt’s ninth goal of the season before Marc Antoine Fortune equalised in the second half after good work from Thomas.

Simeon Jackson then won it for the Canaries after he robbed Craig Dawson before drilling past Ben Foster.

When questioned about his 19-year-old goalkeeper, who had replaced the rested John Ruddy, Lambert told reporters: “I thought his saves were world-class, I really did.”

“He was terrific and it’s only one game for him but (he showed) great temperament for the game, great enthusiasm for the game as well which is important.”

“He’s a really level-headed lad. His handling was absolutely brilliant. The saves he had were exceptional.”

“I’ve never had any fear about playing anyone. You won’t until you give someone the opportunity. His temperament’s great so I knew he could handle a crowd.”

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson also applauded Steer but he was once again left scratching his head after his side’s eighth home defeat of the season following Dawson’s late error.

“Great pity for the game to end that way, great pity for the player, of course. Very young player, he’s making his way in the game and has had a chance to get some first-team games recently with Jonas Olsson’s injury,” he said.

“So it’s really unfortunate for him he didn’t play badly at all in the game.”

“These types of errors occur, they slipped over for our goal funnily enough. But it’s sad to lose it in a way because I didn’t think our performance deserved for us to lose the game because our goalkeeper was pretty much a spectator throughout, but unfortunately we couldn’t breach their defence enough times.”