Norwich boss Philippe Clement praised two-goal hero Jovon Makama after he guided his side to a much-needed 2-1 Championship victory over Southampton, but was told he still had plenty of work ahead of him.
The summer signing from Lincoln – who was leading the line in the absence of Josh Sargent, sidelined due to concussion protocols – twice fired the Canaries in front early in the second half at Carrow Road.
He latched on to Oscar Schwartau’s cross from the right to open the scoring after 48 minutes and, after Ryan Manning had equalised with a sweet long-range strike, quickly restored Norwich’s advantage.
The young striker bundled home Harry Darling’s nod back from a Jacob Wright cross to make it 2-1 just after the hour and although replays showed the final touch had come off his arm, that did nothing to take the shine off a memorable afternoon.
“Jovon has got a lot of qualities and I am pleased with what he did today – but this is only the start of it for him,” said Clement, whose side are now close to climbing out of the relegation zone.
“He can still improve as a player and there is a lot of hard work ahead, but he has shown what he can do.
“Overall I thought it was a good team performance. We created some good chances and also did well to keep them away from our goal.
“I think every player out there did a good job to get us the three points. You could see the confidence in the group and their determination to get the result and this needs to continue going forward.
“We have nowhere near enough points yet but a lot of progress has been made in the three weeks we have been together.”
It might have been a different story had the Saints converted a first-half penalty, but goalkeeper Vladan Kovacevic made a superb stop to thwart Adam Armstrong and set up a memorable second period for the hosts.
Southampton manager Tonda Eckert was feeling hard done by after seeing replays of Makama’s second goal.
“I have looked at it and it seems like quite a clear handball,” he said. “But I am a big fan of referees making decisions on the pitch. It didn’t go in our favour today but on another day, it might go for us.”
On the game overall, he added: “I thought we started well and had chances to go ahead, including the penalty, but we didn’t take them.
“There are a number of things we need to improve on in the second half. We needed to manage things a lot better and didn’t really threaten after their second goal.
“Norwich put in a good performance, but I wouldn’t say they deserved to win. I think there was a lot more for us in this game.”
