Chris Hughton denies there will be any extra edge when his Norwich side take on Aston Villa on Saturday.
It is the first time Norwich players will have faced their former boss Paul Lambert, who walked out of Carrow Road for Villa Park at the end of last season. Yet while Norwich and Lambert are currently in the process of attempting to sue each other over his acrimonious departure, Hughton insists the only score-settling on Saturday will be of a footballing variety.
Hughton said: "We are up against a good Aston Villa team who are playing at home and will have a great support behind them. Whether we are fighting for three points at Aston Villa or anywhere else doesn't make any difference once that whistle goes."
He went on: "In some ways it's different because of the previous manager but that is a very small detail. The bigger detail is that it is three points to play for and I'm sure from Paul's point of view it will be exactly the same.
"We'll have a group of players who will be very grateful to Paul for the magnificent job he did here but once the whistle goes there is only one objective. That is how any of our players will see it.
"I can absolutely guarantee that once the game has kicked off it will be about 11 v 11 and not managers."
In the three seasons Lambert spent at Carrow Road he took the club from League One into the Premier League.
Hughton has found it difficult to maintain the free-flowing form of last season but last week's 1-0 home win against Arsenal, their first victory of the current league campaign, has brought renewed confidence and they lie one point ahead of Villa, who in turn are one place above the relegation zone.
Hughton said: "Generally, the morale has been very good. Of course there is always a better feeling after a win, and a well-deserved win for us.
"Very quickly it is about getting down to doing the business again, learning all we can from the last game and remembering again perhaps what we had not done so well in the previous games."
Source: PA
