Norwich City boss Dean Smith praised his side's 'resilience' after their smash-and-grab win against managerless Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats - who were without boss Alex Neil who is on the verge of being confirmed as Stoke City's new manager - twice hit the woodwork, saw one shot cleared off the line, multiple other efforts blocked by some last-ditch defending, and forced ex-Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul into a couple of saves.
And Norwich's defensive efforts paid off when USA international Josh Sargent snatched a winner 15 minutes from time, despite Sunderland having proved more than a match for the promotion favourites over the 90 minutes. "There were a lot of incidents and it was a very, very hard-fought victory," said Smith.
"What pleased me the most was the resilience. We got some really good blocks, we put our bodies on the line to keep the ball out of our net.
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"Sometimes you have to do that. Yes, we had to withstand some pressure at times. I expected it. I thought their fans did really well to get the team up.
"They pressed and harried us well in that first half. But when we passed it well and took less touches we created some good opportunities."
Norwich made a triple substitution on the hour, bringing on Todd Cantwell, Teemu Pukki, and Aaron Ramsey, with the latter pair combining to create the goal for Sargent. Smith said: "The quality of the subs we have got to go on changed the game.
"For one [example], the build up play when Teemu puts in AJ [Ramsey] and he puts in an unbelievable ball and Sarge [Sargent] is in a good position to score."
On the substitution itself, he added: "It wasn't so much the midfield alone. I just felt when we countered we didn't get up the pitch quickly enough. We work on distances from back to front being five cuts of grass.
"Yesterday it felt it was nine or ten cuts. At any level you can't do that. But when they broke at us we had to defend well and I thought our two centre halves did that."
Norwich were convinced they should have had a penalty in the first half when substitute Sam Byram went to ground inside the Sunderland area with Luke O'Nien close by, but referee Tim Robinson waved away their appeals. Smith felt it was a clear foul, however.
He said: "He [Byram] should have had a penalty, by the way, without a shadow of a doubt. Those ones when they pull the shirt should be picked up."
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