Lambert delighted by spirit

Paul Lambert hailed the spirit of his Norwich side after they held off late Sunderland pressure to record a hard-earned 2-1 win at Carrow Road. Centre-back Leon Barnett put the Canaries in front on 31 minutes after winger Elliott Bennett skipped into the right side of the penalty area.Wales forward Steve Morison powered in a bullet header at the start of the second half after the Black Cats were again caught napping at the back, before substitute Kieran Richardson set up a tense finale when he drilled in a late consolation."They are young and seem to be bonding really well at the minute and that is testament to themselves," Lambert said."I think that comes from where this club is - in the Norfolk area, there's not much you can do here other than travel nine hours to get somewhere."You have got to hang about with each other, so I think that certainly helps you."Home form is going to crucial for us, and if we can keep this place with the feeling we have got and the crowd behind us, then I think we will do all right."Lambert, who has overseen successive promotions from League One since taking charge two seasons ago, added: "When a team scores with five minutes to go, it puts you on the back foot, especially when you are up against this type of quality player."It is really tough, you know from a mistake you are going to get punished and I am delighted the lads saw it through."Norwich head to Manchester United next weekend, where Lambert believes his men can put in a good account of themselves.He said: "The quality of the players and teams you are up against is extremely high, and I knew before tonight if we could win this one, then we would go to Old Trafford a bit more buoyant than just going up there and getting turned over.The one down side for the Canaries tonight was the loss of James Vaughan to another knee injury, the striker hobbling off late on having been introduced as a second-half substitute.The summer signing from Everton had only just returned to action following a pre-season injury."His knee is locked at the minute, which is a sign something is wrong in there, so we will have to see tomorrow," Lambert said."The only good thing is it is not the same knee he did hurt the last time, so that is the only bit of positive I can take out of it."There were, though, little up sides for Sunderland boss Steve Bruce.Despite chances for Nicklas Bendtner and substitute Connor Wickham - who headed straight at the Norwich keeper from six yards - the Black Cats boss accepted his side's showing was just not up to standard.He said: "If I am being honest, we didn't play well enough. There were too many individual poor performances and we kept giving the ball away cheaply."We rallied at the end and started getting the ball up quickly, but we didn't perform."We had too many international players who played badly."Bruce had kept an unchanged side from the one which thumped Stoke 4-0 at the Stadium of Light last weekend.He added: "I cannot criticise the workrate, but it was down to simple mistakes at the back."Norwich are on a crest of a wave and their fans are up for it, but for both goals, our defending was awful."

Source: Team_Talk