The Wisdom of the New Manager

Norwich City 5-2 Wycombe Wanderers

Say what you like about Paul Lambert, he knows where the nets are at Carrow Road. That's 12 scored by his teams on the ground this season.

Norwich fans have seen so many new managers in recent years arrive with a wave on the pitch to rapturous applause before packing the contents of their desk into a big cardboard box within a few months. They could have been forgiven for not having that start-of-a-new-era buzz as the latest incumbent of the Carrow Road home dugout took his seat for the first time.

Lambert managed to get the fans going with his team selection. Six changes, including surprise places in the starting line-up for Jamie Cureton and 18-year-old midfielder Korey Smith.

It did the the trick. Grant Holt, young-pup Smith and Jon Otsemobor had City 3 up before the usual defensive wobble as Wycombe got back to 3-2. The second Wycombe goal came less than 30 seconds into the second half after they had been very late returning to the pitch after the break. I would love to have seen the ref allow Norwich just to kick off anyway but I suppose that would have caused more problems than it solved.

Jens Berthel Askou and Holt made sure of the win with well taken second half goals.

I had found out, by overhearing a conversation in the gents at half-time (now that's journalism), that Holt had woken up on the morning of the game with an infected wisdom tooth. The man who was made skipper by Lambert confirmed my little bit of information gained at the Carrow Road latrines after the game.

Then I wished I had never found it out.

I had an infected wisdom tooth in May and basically spent three days in bed because I couldn't stand the pain. He scored twice and turned in a brilliant performance against Wycombe. I am sticking to the assumption that mine was much worse than his.