It was the turn of ex-Leed’s midfielder Jonny Howson to face the media today in the aftermath of the Canaries’ crucial win.
Howson, coming back into the starting 11 after a brief spell on the sidelines, broke the deadline in a tense affair after 24 minutes with a sweetly hit volley through Brad Guzan’s legs.
The goalscorer understood the importance of today’s win against fellow relegation candidates Aston Villa.
I think whenever you play teams in and around you it’s about picking up the points, especially at this stage of the season when you’ve got games coming thick and fast so it’s very pleasing to get the three points.
He was then asked about any possible nerves towards the end of the 90, with the lead just one goal.
Whenever it’s one-nil, however you’ve played in the game you always can be a bit vulnerable, it only takes a mistake or a bit of class and they’re right back in the game. Whenever it’s like that, the game can turn in an instant and fair play to the lads; we ground the result out and we could have been a bit better on the ball but we defended well and hit them on the break for the second goal.
Attention then turned to the midfielder’s personal exploits, and despite his teammates’ best efforts to interrupt him, Jonny seemed more than happy to talk about his first-half goal.
It came down on my left side and I just thought about hitting the target and luckily it went in. Obviously when you have been out of the side and when you do manage to get back in, you want to put in a good performance and it was nice to get on the scoresheet. But, as I say, more importantly it’s nice that we got the three points and the clean sheet to go with it as well, which was pleasing.
The English midfielder is known for his love of a battle and seemed to appreciate the fight his teamed showed when the heat was turned up in today’s feisty affair.
When you’ve got two passionate teams going for it and certain incidents crop up then at times maybe you do get carried away, but that’s part and parcel of football and maybe we don’t like to see it but sometimes it shows that bit of passion from both sides.
Moving onto the second goal, the irony didn’t escape Howson that the players involved were about to be substituted, but equally the quality shown was clear to our number eight.
It was a great goal. Obviously Wes has got that class and the ability to pick people out and picked (Dieumerci Mbokani) out perfectly at the back stick and it wasn’t an easy header but that’s one of his main strengths, attacking balls in the box and he finished it very well
Those two goals mean Norwich will end the year with 20 points after 19 games and on course so far to stay in the Premier League, but Jonny isn’t getting ahead of himself.
We’ll take it one game at a time rather than looking too far ahead but staying in the division is the main aim and there’s a long way to go as yet.
It’s been a year that everyone involved in Norwich will remember for years to come, and hopefully we have more memories to come.
Great stuff from the 27-year-old and his performance has added to the positive selection dilemmas Neil is currently facing, especially in the centre of the park. Super Jonny has now matched his record goalscoring tally for a Premier League season and looks set to eclipse it by a distance. Long may his Norwich career continue.
