Kamara’s not in Kansas now

Norwich City 2 Everton 1

Kei Kamara, on loan from Sporting Kansas City of the MLS, has only been at Norwich for a matter of days and has now played a total of just 35 minutes over two home fixtures but already he is a firm favourite in this part of the east of England.

When he replaced the listless Luciano Becchio, a fellow January recruit, just before the hour mark Chris Hughton’s Canaries were stumbling to another defeat and their sixth scoreless 90 minutes in their last seven games. Yet within seconds, Kamara forced Tim Howard into a save via an acrobatic effort and in so doing changed the pattern of the game.

The home supporters, previously resigned to grunting at referee Lee Mason, were invigorated and when the new man met Robert Snodgrass’s corner six minutes from time to head home an unchallenged equaliser the memory of weeks of frustration was expunged in a wall of noise.

More was to come. Everton, seemingly on their way to a stifling, regimented victory thanks to Leon Osman’s first-half header, retreated in a fog of panic and, deep into stoppage time, captain Grant Holt applied the coup de grace after both Kamara and Sebastien Bassong had been far more determined to get on the end of Norwich’s last throw of the dice than anyone in a blue shirt.

Trivia fans may wish to know that Kamara became the first player from Sierra Leone, the country he fled as a civil war refugee as a teenager, to score in the Premier League, and the number of different nationalities now on the scoresheet in that competition is 88.

“It’s a great, great moment of my life,” he smiled. “I didn’t know, so a lot of respect to all the guys who have played before. There is a new blood of Sierra Leoneons coming across to play over here but for me it’s a great feeling. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

The win lifted Norwich eight points clear of the relegation places but a reality check awaits them at Manchester United next week. Or does it? The Canaries remain the last English team to beat them, a 1-0 success in November courtesy of Anthony Pilkington’s header. And Kamara has beaten them as well.

“We played against United when we were known as the Kansas City Wizards and they were on a pre-season tour of America. We were the only team to beat them and I scored and got an assist in a 2-1 win. I scored with a header from a corner.

“Almost everyone was in the United team. Scholes and Giggs were playing and Berbatov scored their goal. so all their top guys were playing. So I may be a marked man against them next week now! But that actually makes it a lot of fun for me.

“I’m used to being man marked in America and it just means I have to work much harder because you have to do different tricks to get past people.”

There isn’t much joy in David Moyes’s life at the moment and the Scot was annoyed that referee Mason allowed play to top the allotted four minutes of added time so Holt could score. Yet he did so only by 16 seconds and if you can’t hold out for that then you really have only yourselves to blame.

“We’re disappointed defensively with the way we conceded,” admitted countryman Steven Naismith. “We’ve been working on it in training because we have lost a few late goals from balls into the box.

“The one thing the manager’s disappointed with is that we didn’t have as many shots or take as many chances as we should have. With the amount of ball we had and comfortable possession we should have worked the goalie a bit more.”