West Brom boss Roy Hodgson admits his team made life difficult for themselves at Norwich, but he was happy to take the win.
But Baggies boss feels game should have been killed off
West Brom boss Roy Hodgson admits his team made life difficult for themselves at Norwich, but he was happy to take the win.
The Baggies claimed a 1-0 success thanks to Peter Odemwingie's early goal, which secured their first points of the season.
But Odemwingie missed a second-half penalty which would have killed the game off, and West Brom had to withstand heavy late pressure from Norwich before sealing the win.
"We didn't score the second goal and we had the opportunities, a couple of near misses and a penalty too, and when that doesn't come you know you're going to be in for a tough last ten minutes," Hodgson told
Sky Sports.
"You know the ball is going to be in and around your penalty area at every juncture and you hope it goes kindly and your defence stands firm."
Hodgson admits Odemwingie's penalty miss is something he is not used to, commenting: "I am not used to seeing penalties missed as I had Danny Murphy [at Fulham] who never missed, now I have seen Brunt and Odemwingie miss here, and then we had our penalty taker Graham Dorrans leave the field a few minutes earlier but I am not complaining about anything today, I will consider myself happy with the victory."
Pairing
West Brom started with Odemwingie and Shane Long paired in attack and Hodgson was happy with them for most of the match.
"I thought for the first 60 or 70 minutes they were very, very good, but maybe tiring or the penalty miss, the last 20 I don't think they did as much," he said.
"I am disappointed we didn't pass the ball better there [in the final 20 minutes], but it would be wrong for me to be disappointed at a win against a Norwich side who are hard to beat here."
Norwich were unhappy in the final minute as they felt Gabriel Tamas should have been red-carded for a stray elbow on James Vaughan.
Hodgson said: "In real time I had no view, and I looked at the video - but it is accidental - he caught him but it was unintentional, he could be accused of a clumsy turn but that is it - he [Vaughan] has my sympathy as it hurts whether it is meant or not."
