Norwich City midfielder Simon Lappin says last season’s final-day heartbreak against Charlton at The Valley is now in the past - and the Canary players are focussing on what they need to do at Carrow Road tomorrow.
Despite being bottom of the Championship table at the time and already doomed themselves, the Addicks consigned City to League One with a 4-2 victory at The Valley back in May.
Lappin was one of the Norwich players involved on that fateful day - but insisted everyone was looking forward to facing Phil Parkinson’s in-form side tomorrow rather than dwelling on past events

Charlton are top of the League One table, last Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Southampton the first time they have dropped points after a six-game winning streak to start their campaign with a bang.
He told First News:”It’s a big game against the side that’s top of the table and will be a very, very tough game, but it’s one we’re all looking forward to.
“We all believe we can go on and get the three points. We know it’s going to be very difficult because they are on a run of good form but it’s up to us to go out there and do what we need to do.
“They’ve got off to a great start but we’ve been on a wee run of form ourselves. Obviously we lost on Monday night, which is disappointing, but we’ve been putting out some good football and tomorrow hopefully we can put on a performance.
“What happened last season has gone, this is a new game and we will treat it just as we would every other game we approach.”

Meanwhile with City’s midfield options hit by injuries to Stephen Hughes, Owain Tudur Jones and Matt Gill and left-back Adam Drury being assessed following a hip injury suffered at MK Dons on Monday, Lappin said he was still waiting to find out where he will be playing against the league leaders:
“I don’t know, you’ll need to ask the Manager, obviously he’ll know what the team’s going to be. I’m just happy to be back in the side and playing football again. It’s what I wanted to do, with a great game tomorrow to be involved in hopefully.”
The versatile Scot found himself carrying out two or three different roles at stadium MK on Monday as injuries took their toll.

He said: “Sometimes these things happen, you’ve just got to adapt and get on with it. As I said, I’m just happy to be playing in the side. Obviously the manager knows that I prefer to play in midfield but if I’m asked to do a job elsewhere on the field I’ll give it my lot and try not to let anybody down.”

PHIL Parkinson has revealed his surprise at Norwich’s decision to sack Bryan Gunn after only two games ahead of Charlton’s visit to Carrow Road on Saturday.

The Canaries began the campaign as one of the favourites, along with the Addicks, to bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt.

However, Norwich made the worst possible start with a 7-1 home hammering by Colchester and even though they followed it up with a 4-0 Carling Cup success at Yeovil, Gunn was replaced by Paul Lambert within a week of the new season.

Parkinson said: “It is always strange looking in from the outside. You let a manager bring in 10 players and then he gets sacked after one league game.

“Albeit the first was 7-1 but still they’ve backed him to spend a few quid.

“They haven’t all been free transfers because Grant Holt had quite a hefty transfer fee, so I think everybody was surprised that he only got two games.”

Results have improved since Lambert’s arrival, although the Canaries go into Saturday’s match on the back of a 2-1 defeat at MK Dons.

Parkinson is expecting the league leaders to face a real test this weekend and predicted Norwich will be involved in the promotion chase come the end of the season.

He said: “It is similar to Southampton last week - it is quite difficult to predict how they are going to play in terms of their system.

“They’ve gone 4-4-2 at home and 4-5-1 away from home.

“But we’ve obviously identified who we think their key players are and there has been a big changeover in both the management and playing squad.

“They’ve got a lot of quality in the squad, a lot of strength in depth and they’ll be up there.”

Norwich were relegated on the final day of last season at The Valley when they were brushed aside 4-2 by the already demoted Addicks.

The poor display from the Canaries led to some vociferous criticism from the visiting fans, but Parkinson today diplomatically declined to speculate on why Norwich had put up such a limp display with so much at stake.

He added: “Obviously we played very well that particular day.

“It was a strange old atmosphere and I don’t really want to go back over old ground and comment on their performance.

“I’ll leave that to the Norwich people.”

Lloyd Sam returned to training today after picking up a knock against Southampton last week and the League One August player of the month is expected to start at Carrow Road.

Norwich Chief executive David McNally has spoken for the first time of the controversial sacking of City legend Bryan Gunn whose tenure as boss was ended after just one league game at the beginning of the season after the 7-1 loss at home to Colchester on the opening day.

McNally who was speaking at a public supporters’ forum said the decision to sack Brian Gunn was based on more than the results of the last seven months.

He said there were also major concerns about:
1. Preparations for the new season”,
2. Preparation for individual matches
3. Post-match assessment
4. The pre-game ‘behaviour’

Those things, were “fundamentally wrong” said McNally,.

McNally also disputed claims that Gunn’s sacking before a game at Exeter on August 15th had been treated shabbily.

“We had a board meeting on the Thursday and we discussed Bryan Gunn’s abilities as manager,” he said. “The decision was taken late into the night and once that decision was made you have to get on with it and put measures into place to ensure that action is taken.

“I did not phone him and tell him of the decision, I flew down to Exeter. I did not haul him off the training ground. I asked for a private meeting and we discussed man-to-man, eye-to-eye what we needed to do.

“Those discussions are never nice, but it was certainly dignified and respectful and something that had to be done.

“I would have preferred not to have done it. The easiest thing in the world for me to have done was not to have done it and not to have said to the board, ‘this is what you need to do’.

“I could not do that for this great football club. Whilst I am here I will care passionately about doing the right thing because this club deserves better than it has received in the last four years.

“It doesn’t change the fact that Bryan is and always will be a legend, but things were fundamentally wrong, and that just has to be said.”

McNally also defended the decision to allow Gunn to spend money on new signings during the summer by saying “We back our football manager, whoever he is at that time,” also adding “He is the guy who is ultimately responsible for what happens on the pitch so we have to give him the tools.”

Paul Lambert came in to replace Gunn, a little over three weeks ago, although the dispute over the way City lured him to Carrow Road still  lingers on, with the clubs unable to reach a compromise over compensation and the Essex club’s chairman calling for a fine and point deduction should Norwich be found guilty of acting against the rules.

But McNally insists he played it by the book.

“It still remains private,” he told members of the Norwich City Independent Supporters’ Association. “We are attempting to resolve it as amicably as we can. We did not break any code of conduct and we did not break any rules.

“If we are guilty of anything we are guilty of employing the person we thought was right for the football club and not paying too much attention to the 100-odd applications we received.

“We believe we did things the right way at all times.

“We want this resolved as soon as possible so we can concentrate on other things. Sometimes these things go to tribunal, but if this does we are confident - and don’t worry about points.”

McNally also revealed that 90 per cent of his time was currently spent trying to improve the club’s finances. “They are not in good shape,” he admitted. “We do need to improve the look of our balance sheet. The debt is making us business weary and we are looking at ways of improving it. If you haven’t got it you can’t spend it.”

Cody McDonald admits it is “frustrating” trying to win a first-team place at Carrow Road. McDonald is duelling with Jamie Cureton, Chris Martin, Goran Maric and Luke Daley for a place up front alongside captain Grant Holt but believes he can cement a starting role.

‘There is a big place up for grabs in the first team,’ he said.’ It is frustrating, but that’s part and parcel of football.

‘They’re not just going to have two strikers here that play every time. Obviously there is big competition there and basically when we get the chance we’ve got to take it. That’s the competition we face.’

Holt has scored five times this season already and McDonald said that he is learning new things from the former Nottingham Forest and Shrewsbury striker.

‘He is a very good talker and obviously playing with someone like Grant with the experience that he’s had at playing at this level of football really helps. Thankfully when you get the chance to play alongside someone like Grant it is good for me.

‘Everyone is playing well in the club at the minute and there’s a real confidence around the place.’

Lambert puts draw into perspective by refusing to be despondent after watching his side drop two home points in a dull goalless draw against Walsall.

The Canaries went in to Saturday’s game with two straight League One wins behind them but failed to break down a dogged Saddlers defence as their attempt to make it three on the trot ended in failure.

Lambert admitted his side were worth no more than a point after turning in a disappointing display but were still looking on the bright side after the game.

“A draw is probably a fair result. I don’t think we did enough to deserve a win but then I don’t think we deserved to lose either,” Lambert said.

“It’s another clean sheet and I am not going to moan about that. At the end of the season it might turn out to be a good result for us and I’m a great believer that if it’s not going to be your day then you have to make sure you don’t lose the game and get something out of it.

“It’s also worth bearing in mind that we have now taken seven points from a possible nine and if we had been offered that a few weeks ago we would certainly have taken it.”

Norwich City’s 7-1 defeat by Colchester on the opening day of the season hit the club much harder than anyone expected, according to manager Paul Lambert.

Lambert, who was still in charge of the U’s when they pulled off their remarkable victory at Carrow Road four weeks ago, before he switched jobs, said the result had been a crushing blow to Norwich - but praised the players for their response, winning both his league games in charge before today’s visit of Walsall.

He said: “Considering we’ve only been here a short space of time, the players have done great. You’ve got to remember, before we came, in the club was getting criticised from right, left and centre. It was getting beaten up since the Colchester game.

“The Colchester game probably hurt this football club more than a lot of people thought, but I knew that would happen because of the size of the club that’s here.

“You just don’t get beaten that heavily and think it’s going to blow over. It was always going to be a heavy downfall but they’ve responded absolutely brilliantly.

“The lads have done it themselves. The lads have produced it. They’re the ones that deserve the most credit for what’s happened.”

Lambert said he was beginning to get an idea of his best line-up.

“You do tend to get a feel for what lads will be round about it, so you have a rough idea,” he said. “But it’s the shape of the team that’s important to me. I think if you can grasp that and the personnel can get a grip, we’ll be fine.”

There will be further opportunities to assess the younger members of his squad when City Reserves begin their campaign on Tuesday night after being re-admitted to the Totesport.com Combination East, with Southend United visiting Carrow Road (7.30pm).

“I think it is important for the younger ones,” said Lambert. “The young lads need to be playing against men, they need to step up a little bit from their own age group. It’s important to get them involved in that and I hope that’s what will happen.

“That’s what I’m looking for - for the younger ones to step up and see if they can play at a little bit higher level than they’re used to.

“If you look at the squad, a lot of them are young and haven’t kicked a ball in earnest in first team football, so you can’t really turn round and say it’s a big squad for experience because it’s not.

“The young ones have done great. How long we will get that throughout the season you don’t know because young ones tend to fluctuate with their form. And the younger lads who are nowhere near it need to play some reserve team football.”

Atricle by Evening news 24