TWO set-piece goals and another clean sheet gave Sam Allardyce plenty to smile about as he left Carrow Road on Saturday. But the Wanderers boss had wondered whether it was going to be one of those days.
"We didn't stick a couple of good chances in the back of the net and I did wonder whether we were going to be made to pay for that," he admitted.
"I have to say they were bad misses by Ricardo Gardner and Michael Ricketts but they were super saves from their keeper as well. In the end it didn't matter because young Michael and the "Old Man" Gudni Bergsson scored with two excellent headers and I felt we got the result our performance deserved.
"We started a little slowly but we built up to a crescendo as the game went on and that brought us a commanding, controlled performance all the way through.
"To win at Norwich, where they've won three and drawn one of their last four games, is an awesome result for us and, of course, the clean sheet scanario is there again. If we can maintain that we can go into the Christmas period confident of maintaining our position.
"With Paul Warhurst back with us and hopefully staying fit and Robbie Elliott getting there, their experience and class can be a telling issue. And with Michael Ricketts' finishing power so awesome at the minute, when we do get a goal in front we don't look like we're going to lose a match now.
"There was a period on Saturday, just after we'd scored our first goal, when we had to withstand some pressure, but we came back and passed the ball very well. We never stopped trying to pass it and we got better and better as the game went on.
"That's taken it on from Barnsley last week and shown we're coming on in leaps and bounds, even though we've been limited by the injury list. But the loss of Mark Fish and Isaiah Rankin going back (to Bradford) hasn't affected us, I'm glad to say.
"We lost Gareth Farrelly, who did a hamstring in training last Thursday, Ian Marshall tweaked his groin again right at the end of a fitness test and Dean Holdsworth got a slight calf. All that made me very depressed but the team gave me a very, very good weekend.
"At the start of the season, we had six clean sheets in nine games and we've struggled since but we're getting back to that mode now because we know that one goal is going to win us three points. With the goalscoring form of Michael Ricketts I think we always know we are going to get chances in a game. It's very rare that we don't score.
"Kevin Nolan played a full game for England U-18s on Thursday and Ricardo Gardner played a full game in El Salvador but they both worked their socks off and that shows what we are about at the moment. Everybody's enjoying themselves in training and the confidence is good because when they go out onto the field they feel like their going to win.
"That growing confidence and the fact that they know what they need to do away from home in terms of nullify the opposition is always going to give us a chance. The system we are using with the players we've got might be hard sometimes for the single striker but the support going to him is getting better and better so the system is beginning to be the best and the most effective for us away from home."
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