McAteer Proud Of The Norwich Performance

- Leicester City defeated Norwich City 2-0 in the Sky Bet Championship
- Wednesday's victory at Carrow Road was a sixth win in seven league games
- Kasey McAteer scored the Foxes’ second goal of the night
- He pointed to the work at both ends of the pitch to secure the points

The Academy graduate’s late goal sealed a hard-fought victory at Carrow Road on Tuesday night, following on from Kelechi Iheanacho converting a first-half penalty to lift the Foxes back up to second in the Sky Bet Championship, ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Bristol City at King Power Stadium (3pm BST kick-off).

“We’re really, really pleased in there after the game,” the midfielder revealed. “The gaffer said it might be a tough game and it sure was. They posed a real threat on the attack and we knew that would be a tough part of the game tonight.

“But I thought the boys dug really deep and managed to keep a clean sheet, which is great as well. So now the boys are really proud.

“We knew that they attack with the full-backs really high, so at times we'd have to go to a back five when we drop in with the full-backs all the way. I thought the boys were bang on tonight with the tactics and that's credit to the gaffer and coaching staff as well getting it spot on.”

Enzo Maresca’s men had to work for their fourth away league win of the campaign and were indebted to a superb Mads Hermansen save to hold on to their slender lead. It contributed to the Dane’s first clean sheet in a Leicester shirt, with work from the whole defensive unit contributing to that statistic.

Photos 20 Sep 2023

Norwich City 0 Leicester City 2

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“He’s over the moon,” the 21-year-old revealed. “I think he's been waiting for it to come for a while now. At point blank, I think it was when it came over, I saw the flight of it, and he's got a great contact on it and has pulled out a worldie, so credit to him, he was unbelievable.

“But like Mads says, the boys in front of him tonight, Jannik [Vestergaard], Wout [Faes], everyone was magnificent. There were a lot of balls into the box, a lot of corners, but we defended really well, and we can be really proud of ourselves tonight.”

Scoring for the fourth time this season, it has been some start for McAteer, but he admitted he won’t net an easier goal than the one he tapped home from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s cross, following a blistering counter attack.

The winger explained: “I had to keep my nerves after missing the header a few minutes before. But I just saw the ball go towards Ki and tried to keep myself onside and arrive at the back post. That's what the gaffer is so big on, and it was an empty net so I couldn't really miss.

“That (the celebration) was for a friend. He just told me to do it if I scored again, for a specific reason, and I remembered to do it. It came to my mind as soon as I scored, and I thought why not at 2-0?

“I'm so grateful to be where I am at the moment. But I know there's so much more hard work to be done. It's a long season and I can't afford to take my foot off the gas. I need to just keep going, keep driving every day, working hard training and the gaffer is massive on that. It's no time to rest on our laurels now. We need to keep going and keep fighting.”