Boss urges key Canaries not to take flight

Fulham 6 Norwich 0

An amazing upturn in form over the last six weeks had seen the Canaries drag themselves off the bottom of the table and out of the drop zone heading into the final day of the campaign.

However, that fighting spirit which had seen destiny put back in their own hands was absent yesterday, as Brian McBride gave Fulham an early lead from which they never looked back.

The visitors had a strong penalty claim turned down by referee Steve Dunn when Darren Huckerby seemed to have been held back by Moritz Volz, but when Papa Bouba Diop fired in a superb 25-yard free-kick just before the break, the writing was on the wall for the Canaries.

Some shocking defending saw Zat Knight fire in a rare strike at the start of the second period, before Steed Malbranque, McBride and substitute Andrew Cole completed a disappointing end to a first campaign back in the top flight since 1995.

Worthington, though, soon turned his attentions to the job ahead, rather than reflecting on where things had gone wrong. “I think the occasion maybe got to one or two, but great credit to Fulham, they were very professional and played very well, and we were not as good as we could have been,” said the Norwich manager.

“After going behind, we started to chase it and when you do that against the quality that Fulham possess, then you are asking for trouble.

“Six or seven weeks ago, we were dead and buried, and it looked just a case of filling in the hole - but we are fighters, have bounced back and that is to our great credit.”

However, the Canaries chief insisted: “The board and I are trying to build Norwich City Football Club, and anyone looking at Norwich City players, they will not be going easily.

“All my best young players are on long-term contracts, so it would need to be a very, very attractive offer - because there is not a tree around Norwich where I can go and pick a [Robert] Green, or a [Dean] Ashton or a [Damien] Francis off just like that.”

Worthington added: “Everybody has got ambition and everybody wants to be in the Premier League, I am no different.

“What I would like to see is maybe commitment to Norwich City, who have given people opportunities, who have looked after them very well and if they could be a little bit patient and maybe give some of that back to the club and the supporters to get us off at the start of next season, because there are no guarantees that you bounce straight back.”

Norwich majority share-holder Delia Smith said the Norfolk club would not be forced to offload any of their key men.

“We have sound finances so we don’t have to sell any players,” she said. “If they want to go, that is another story - but I just hope we can hang on to them to give it another go next year.

“We knew all season it would be a roller-coaster. We started with a £4 million squad, and some of the players we are up against take that home in their wages.

“We were the poor kids on the block, we were the Cinderellas.”

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Volz, Knight, Goma, Bocanegra, Malbranque, Clark, Diop, Boa Morte (Cole 87), McBride, Radzinski.

NORWICH: Green, Helveg (Jonson 45), Fleming, Shackell, Drury, Bentley (Svensson 59), Safri (Holt 33), Francis, Huckerby, Ashton, McKenzie.

Referee: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).