Not a name game’

CHRIS LAKEY

By CHRIS LAKEY

Darren Huckerby insists today's clash against West Bromwich Albion is more than a showdown between him and Baggies star Jason Koumas.

Both would walk into a Championship XI, but the City man says there will be plenty of stars on show at Carrow Road.

“Obviously, Jason is a very, very good player, consistently good,” he said. “But it is not just a battle between me and him. They have a lot of good players and so have we.

“People expect big things from both of us and hopefully we can continue doing that.”

Youssef Safri wouldn't be too far behind in the City pecking order and it was his corner which provided Huckerby with his 10th goal in 17 games since the turn of the year as the Canaries won 2-1 at Hull City on Friday afternoon.

The Moroccan's inswinger was turned in right on the line by Huckerby, who, despite running straight over to congratulate his team-mate, was in no doubt as to the scorer.

“It's a good ball in by Saff and I think it just hit me more than anything else,” said Huckerby. “The keeper was caught out of position. I think he thought it was going to go a bit further back and he kind of pushed me on to it. I think he tried to be the other side of me, he was the wrong side of me and I don't think he thought Saff was going to put the ball there.

“It doesn't really matter as long as they go in.”

It was an eventful afternoon's work for Huckerby, who followed his 39th-minute opener by setting up Dickson Etuhu for the second 10 minutes after the interval, but also saw two efforts disallowed and a good chance spurned as the ball bobbled on the poor surface.

“I had one disallowed for offside which I didn't think was offside,” he said. “I had one when I was clean through and it bobbled up and hit me on the shin and went over, but all in all I am quite happy.

“I set up Dickson's goal as well so it was a good day at the office for us all, especially after last week. I thought we were the much better team. We are happy with it, we deserved to win.”

Huckerby was at a loss to explain why City had played so well, yet were so poor in defeat at Colchester the previous weekend.

“I can't really explain it,” he said. “The problem we have had this season is consistency. Last week, the second half was not acceptable. We have to stop being up and down. We know if we defend right and we are solid that we can create chances. As a team we have to be harder to beat.

“It is important that we build on the Hull win. We won two home games and went to Colchester after the break and didn't come away with the result we wanted, so now we have got to go back to Carrow Road and be solid.

“We will create chances against anybody.”