City striker credits Cherries win to collective effort
CAMERON Jerome saluted Norwich City's professional approach following their 2-1 victory away to table-topping AFC Bournemouth in Alex Neil's first game in charge on Saturday.The Canaries fell behind with 18 minutes gone when Matt Ritchie converted a Marc Pugh cross, but levelled before the interval through Gary Hooper's close-range finish.
City's prospects of taking all three points seemed unlikely when Jonny Howson was shown a 64th minute red card, but Jerome produced a clinical strike in the closing stages to get Neil's managerial reign off to the perfect start.
The nature of the result was made all the more impressive by it being the Cherries' first league defeat since September, and after the game Jerome told Norwich City TV: "We bounced back well, and showed great character.
"We've come here, worked hard, and been determined and gritty to come away with three points when it looked like luck was deserting us. It was nothing less than the boys deserved; it's about time we had the rub of the green.
"They work really hard, run off the ball a lot and have a great team spirit, but we knew if we matched them for all those things we had enough quality to beat them. We gave them respect because of where they are in the league, but didn’t fear them, so came here and tried to play.
"We matched them for endeavour and enthusiasm, and that little bit of quality at the end came out."
Former Hamilton player-manager Neil had little time to work with his new charges ahead of the trip to Dorset having only completed his switch to Norwich on Friday, opting to take a watching brief in the Goldsands Stadium stands from kick-off.
However, that changed following Howson's dismissal as the 33-year-old rapidly made his way down to the dugout, and Jerome added: "The Club's obviously acted pretty quickly to get someone through the door, which is pleasing.
"It's good to have the new manager in, and we're looking forward to working with him. He's introduced himself and had a little bit of an impact, but let us prepare ourselves for the game with Mike [Phelan] and Gary [Holt].
"They've done a magnificent job getting us prepared, so hats off to those guys for picking up the pieces. It's been a big team effort, and everyone's really pulled together.
"Hopefully we can build on this as we've come to a team top of the league and got a result we knew we were capable of. It's up to us to kick on now, as I'm sure we've made everyone proud."
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