Monday 25 May 2015 21:09, UK
Norwich City manager Alex Neil has revealed he always believed he could guide the club to promotion after they sealed an immediate return to the Premier League with victory in the Championship play-off.
Neil, who ended a two-year spell at Hamilton Academical to take over from Neil Adams at Carrow Road in January, watched on at Wembley as goals from Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond overcame Middlesbrough – a side they had failed to beat on two previous occasions this season.
And, asked whether he thought Norwich had a realistic chance of promotion when he took over as manager, Neil told Sky Sports: “Yes, when I took the job we wanted to gain promotion.
“Everybody talked about how strong the squad was and I believed if I could get us up and running we would have a real shot.
“We obviously fell a little bit short in terms of automatic promotion but when we went into the play-offs I fancied our chances against anyone.
“The fact we played against Middlesbrough recently allowed me to see how they played and I set up accordingly to try and counter that. To be fair to the boys they were fantastic today.
“We lost the last game against Middlesbrough and we thought we were hard done by. We dominated the game (at Carrow Road) but they came out of the traps quicker.
“It was something we focused on and we wanted to make sure today that we came out of the traps and didn’t give them an advantage. We also wanted to score the first goal, which was crucial.”
The Canaries became the 18th side to gain promotion in the season following their relegation from the top flight.
And Neil is relishing the difficult challenge of pitting his wits against some of the greatest sides in European football when the Premier league season gets underway in August.
“I am under no illusions it is going to be extremely difficult next season,” he added.
“But I am in the early stages of my managerial career and the teams I have had we try to go and express ourselves and go and play.”