Swansea 2-3 Norwich: Daily Mirror match report
Published 21:33 12/02/12 By Phil Cadden
Grant Holt received a bucketload of abuse from Swansea fans, but the big striker said he is thankful for it.
A two-goal salvo from Holt, sandwiched by Anthony Pilkington’s deflected effort, inspired the Canaries to eighth place – their highest Premier League position of the season.
Yet that came against a backdrop of Holt being roundly booed by the Swansea faithful for his pre-match comments on Twitter. Holt tweeted: “Good team, nice ground, shame they’re Welsh.”
But the 30-year-old hitman insists he was grateful for the constant booing from the South Wales audience.
“I’m never popular anywhere I go,” he said. “But I like that. I love getting abuse, I really do. One of my old managers Steve Parkin always used to tell me that the reason rival fans shout at me is because I’m doing something right. I want to get abuse every week. I’m big enough and old enough to take it.
“People can write or tweet what they want. If people want to give me stick on there, that’s fine. It was one person’s comment. I can handle banter as long as they don’t mind getting some back!”
It was an eventful afternoon for Holt, who also conceded a late penalty for a tug on Ashley Williams’ shirt, allowing Danny Graham to net his second goal.
Referee Martin Atkinson opted not to caution the forward for the infringement, which would have resulted in a red card after picking up a yellow for celebrating his second goal.
Norwich manager Paul Lambert quipped: “Grant taking his shirt off is not a great sight. I would have booked him too.”
But Holt stayed on the field as Norwich became only the second team, after champions Manchester United, to claim maximum points at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea took a 23rd-minute lead against the run of play when Graham beat John Ruddy after a neat pass by Nathan Dyer.
Norwich stormed back after the break and despite Michel Vorm turning Andrew Surman’s diving header onto the bar (left), the Canaries soon fashioned three goals in a 17-minute blitz.
Holt capitalised on a static defence to produce a trademark header following Elliott Ward’s hooked cross.
The visitors grew in strength from that moment. Pilkington saw his shot deflected past Swansea keeper Vorm, courtesy of a deflection from Neil Taylor.
Then Holt added a third on 63 minutes from a narrow angle after a lung-bursting run by Elliott Bennett.
Swansea rallied late on with Graham’s second from the spot setting up a grand finale, and Brendan Rodgers’ men almost salvaged an unlikely leveller when Graham and then Steven Caulker went close.
But defender Ward, who made his first appearance of the season following a knee injury, had a dig at Swansea for failing to have an alternative method of play.
Ward said: “Yes, Swansea pass the ball well, but we pressed them that high they did not know what to do. I don’t think they’ve come up against that or our physical game too many times before.
“A lot of teams are probably too scared of how they play to get into them. But you have to have confidence in your own ability. They need to remember: teams are allowed to tackle them.
“We got stuck in and I’m not sure Swansea have got a Plan B.”
