Frank Lampard stunned by Derby's dramatic comeback win at Norwich
Saturday 29 December 2018 19:27, UK
Derby County manager Frank Lampard admitted he had never seen a game like it after his side scored two late goals after a floodlight failure to seal a dramatic 4-3 win at Norwich.
The hosts had just gone 3-2 up with 10 minutes remaining when a section of the lights went out between the Regency Stand and City Stand due to a fusebox problem, causing a 25-minute delay.
When play resumed the Rams equalised almost immediately through Florian Jozefzoon and then grabbed a stoppage-time winner as Jack Marriott muscled his way through before beating Tim Krul.
There was still time for Norwich substitute Jordan Rhodes to hit the underside of the crossbar after Scott Carson had made a brilliant save to deny Todd Cantwell – but the visitors held on to take all three points.
“It was a game which had everything and I don’t think I have been involved with one like that before,” Lampard said. “I have certainly never gone back to the dressing room and then come back like that before and as a manager I have never been involved in a game with two late goals like that.
“I think the delay worked in our favour because Norwich had just scored their goal and the momentum was with them. It was bad timing for them and good timing for us because it gave us the chance to reorganise things and I thought David Nugent did a superb job when he came on, playing a part in both our goals.
“Norwich will be saying they deserved something from the game, and they would have [deserved] a point to be fair, but I think we deserved this for the way we came out after the delay. The players deserve so much credit for coming away from a tough place like this with three points.”
Lampard was less impressed with his side’s start to the game, with Norwich completely dominating and deservedly leading 2-0 through Ben Godfrey and Teemu Pukki before Derby finally got their act together to go in at the break 2-2 thanks to Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount.
“For the first 30 minutes we didn’t show that desire against a very good Norwich side and to be honest the score could have been anything,” he admitted. “But goals change games and once we got it back to 2-1 we started to play at a much better level.
“There is a lesson to be learned here, you can’t start games like that and expect to get much from them but, credit to the boys for coming back – and for our supporters for staying behind us and helping us get the result we wanted.”
City boss Daniel Farke felt the delay was pivotal, with Pukki having just fired the Canaries into the lead.
“I don’t want to use the floodlight problem as an excuse but if it hadn’t been for that I am sure we would have gone on and won the game,” he said. “We had just scored, we had the momentum with us, and the delay gave Derby a chance to take a break and make changes.
“Having said that I was very disappointed with our defending when we came back on the pitch – and we also let them back in the game with poor defending just before half-time when we were in complete control.
“It is difficult to accept that we have lost this game. For most of the first half Derby just couldn’t handle our quality.
“In the end a few minutes of sloppiness in both halves cost us – but there’s no doubt we were the better side and deserved to win the game.
“I am disappointed of course, but overall we can hold our heads high and move forward with confidence.”
