Victory sees 18th-placed Sunderland move to within a point of Norwich in 17th with a game in hand. This was one of those days. “We want to win the game and win the trophy, yeah”.
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“I probably should have done better on a couple of those breakaways”. He also claimed that Norwich “have been involved in high-pressure situations quite a lot of times since I’ve been here”, but in reality, the triumph over Newcastle a fortnight ago was the only occasion since Christmas that the Canaries have proved their mettle.
But all that fine work has produced too little in terms of improved points return and only six games remain for Allardyce to show it is not also too late.
“We have to make sure we build on this now and keep Sunderland in the Premier League”.
Steve Wilson: “These two sides met in the 1985 League Cup final (1-0 to Norwich) and the 1992 FA Cup semi-final (1-0 to Sunderland) – but, even so, this must be by far the biggest match ever played between Norwich and Sunderland”.
Sunderland, on the other hand, have 5 matches left in the Premiership season, an advantage that the Black Cats will nearly certainly need to capitalise on if they are to leapfrog Norwich into safety. I counted three goalline clearances, not to mention his all-round effectiveness and determination. Duncan Watmore completed the scoring.
Watmore rubbed salt in Norwich’s wounds in stoppage time when he took Seb Larsson’s pass and clipped a near-post finish past Ruddy. “We all know the facts of points and everything like that, we have to be focused and do the best we can”. We have experience of a high level of football as well.
“We have to play a different way as you can’t play off him, you have to play wide and through midfield, but he will score the goals”.
“My career will take whatever way and whatever form it needs to take; the players, majority will never get a club better than this, in my opinion, with its facilities and its supporters, playing in the top league in the world, and they really need to realise that”. Allardyce pushed striker Cameron Jerome at one stage.
Norwich City hosted Sunderland in the early Premier League game on Saturday, with the game acting effectively as a relegation play-off.
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This weekend these two teams meet at Carrow Road where the Norwich City fans will hope to give their team a boost which might just get them over the line. It’s incredibly frustrating thinking about the game the day after, and thinking, My God, how close were we to winning?’ That is what we need. “So we can do it”.
