Canaries boss fuming despite draw

22 March 2009 12:40
Cameron Jerome fired Birmingham into a half-time lead but Norwich levelled eight minutes into the second half when Sammy Clingan converted a 25-yard free-kick for his fourth goal of the season.[LNB]Gunn, who felt the opening goal should not have stood, said: "Before the game the referee said he would make the right major decisions but he failed to award a free-kick for an infringement against my goalkeeper, David Marshall.[LNB]"99.9% of the time the referee would have awarded a free-kick and not allowed a goal. Marshall came in with blood on his nose so there had been contact and I thought the referee was poor and it was a bad decision."[LNB]Birmingham manager Alex McLeish disagreed with his former Aberdeen team-mate.[LNB]He said: "It was a clean jump by Cameron Jerome.[LNB]Marshall should have punched instead of trying to catch the ball.[LNB]"There was no contact with Jerome and Marshall hurt himself falling down."[LNB]Gunn could at least be pleased with the result.[LNB]He added: "I was delighted with the performance of the team but disappointed we did not get the three points.[LNB]"We now have confidence in the team and in recent weeks we have shown that we are a good team. It was a fine opportunity for the players to play against such an experienced team as Birmingham and they did themselves proud.[LNB]"We are particularly indebted to the loan players such as Alan Lee. He could have joined other clubs but was very happy to join Norwich.[LNB]"I was also pleased with the commitment of Simon Lappin on his first appearance after 16 months out of the team. He is a model professional and an example to the rest of the team."[LNB]Unsurprisingly McLeish was not so pleased with the outcome.[LNB]"We started too casually and the players forgot what I had told them for recent home games," he said.[LNB]"We had a good opportunity to shut the game out but then shot ourselves in the foot giving away a free-kick on the edge[LNB]of the penalty area.[LNB]"We have given away far too many free-kicks away on the edge of the area in recent games and somewhere along the line you are going to get punished, as we were on this occasion.[LNB]"Lee Carsley is gutted as he didn't deal with it and clear the situation."[LNB]McLeish also has obvious attacking problems. Birmingham have now only scored six times in their last eight games[LNB]but they remain in second place behind Wolves, albeit five points behind.[LNB]Norwich desperately tried to knock Birmingham out of their stride with some snappy attacks on the break with Alan Gow and Dave Mooney often a threat.[LNB]Birmingham's attacking ideas were seemingly very limited and it was over half an hour before they managed to test goalkeeper Marshall when he easily saved a Hameur Bouazza header.[LNB]But Marshall was seriously at fault in the 38th minute when he failed to gather a left-wing cross from Bouazza and Jerome pounced to score.[LNB]Norwich levelled eight minutes into the second half when Clingan scored direct from a free-kick after Carsley had fouled Lee.[LNB]Marshall made amends for his earlier mistake in spectacular style with a last-minute save when he flicked a Kevin Phillips header over the[LNB]bar.[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk