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Swansea City 2 Norwich City 3

IF there is a secret formula, Paul Lambert wasn’t giving it away. Having done what Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp had failed to and won at the Liberty this year, the Norwich boss was keeping his own personal recipe for success over Swansea to himself.

“There’s no secret, we’re just a good side,” stressed the stern-faced Scot.

“What was our game plan? To win.”

Big tick for Lambert in that case, job done as Swansea succumbed to Norwich for the second time this season.

But if the Canaries’ chief was keeping things to himself, it was easy to find out what had been in the dressing room team talk for the visitors.

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter how far someone runs or how many passes they complete, it’s about getting the result,” bragged Canaries centre-back Elliott Ward.

“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.

“We got stuck in, we pressed them and we were physical.”

It may not have always been pretty, but Norwich were pretty effective.

Especially when Martin Atkinson opted to take a soft hold of a game littered with frustrating fouls, seemingly rotated by those in yellow shirts.

And it was hard not to agree that Norwich ultimately deserved their victory, secured by scoring three times in a 17 minute second half period where Swansea looked frankly shapeless.

But while Lambert will want praise for the way he set his side up to stop Swansea playing, Swansea deserve criticism for falling into the trap.

Because forget Plan B’s – as Ward suggested Swansea were without – it was the A-game Swansea needed to come out on top, the kind that they have invariably shown throughout this first Premier League year.

When full-backs wander away from their roles, when runs are left untracked, when players wait for a whistle that doesn’t come, defeats usually follow.

“It never tastes well when you have a defeat,” admitted Swans boss Brendan Rodgers, staying positive post-match but the earlier flapping arms, angry whistles and sometimes exasperated expressions from the dugout leaving no-one in doubt of his frustrations.

“We have to be disappointed with the manner in which we conceded the goals; we went to sleep at the beginning of the second half – and that’s a period we have talked about.

“We can’t have too many complaints.

“I didn’t think our intensity was quite there but the players aren’t robots.

“They have been incredible in what they have done for this club thus far and it’s one of those moment we have to take.”

Rodgers is right but what makes it tough to take is the fact that it wasn’t one of the big boys doing the damage.

It was a Norwich side that Swansea could have bettered had they been sharper.

Yet Norwich seem capable of doing that to Swansea, of making them ragged and rushed.

It was a similar story at Carrow Road in September. If Lambert has no detailed game plan, perhaps he simply has his own version of Canary Kryptonite!

Because all the things Swansea have been recently hailed as super-heroes for, slowly went out of the window at one time or other.

Having just about settled from a high-tempo start, Danny Graham’s superbly taken opener left you wondering whether the wind would be taken out of Norwich sails.

With Gylfi Sigurdsson again an exciting and efficient attacking option, his run and pass to Nathan Dyer allowed the wideman to shuffle and give confident Graham one-touch and shot space for a 23rd minute lead.

A lead that would have doubled had a cutting Swansea move been finished by Graham rather than defended by Elliott Ward five minutes from the break.

But off the hook and prepared to antagonise with their all-action display, Norwich were level 47 minutes in through Grant Holt and via a bizarre bit of aerial ping-pong and a slight deflection.

Then, four minutes later, a rather larger deflection gave Anthony Pilkington the second as Swansea decided to give yellow shirts acres to exploit.

And with the midfield overwhelmed and over-run and Norwich passing well themselves, the impressive Elliott Bennett set up Holt for a third.

Had Joe Allen’s hamstring been up to playing, constant and cheap turnover in possession wouldn’t have been so obvious with Josh McEachran not up to speed just yet, Swansea losing the ball 20 times according to the stats.

Similarly, you wonder if a fit Kemy Agustien would have been able to physically fill the growing hole in the middle as Swansea were sucked out of their natural game as customary composure left them.

And yet Swansea could, perhaps should, have nicked a point.

Although Michel Vorm had to pull off a couple of superb saves to keep things at three, it was Swansea asking the questions at the end.

Steve Caulker had hit the post with one glancing header and John Ruddy had to be at full stretch to keep out a Sigurdsson free-kick before Holt’s tactless tug on Williams gave Graham the chance to reduce the deficit from the spot.

Having taken that opportunity, then Graham missed from Sigurdsson’s square ball before Ruddy had the final save with a fine point-blank stop from another Caulker header.

Given the way the game was heading at one point, the attempted comeback when not at their best will keep confidence in camp as they head off for warm-weather training.

Key when survival still needs points to be secured, regardless of how well the team have done up to now.

“We can’t be too disappointed or overly-critical because we have put ourselves in a brilliant position with 13 games to go,” said Rodgers rightly.

“But we can’t afford to daydream. We can’t be looking forward and think we are in the league for next season.

“There’s still a hell of a lot of work to do. We’re not a team that can afford to have a few players not at their best.

“We have to have the foot to the floor with eight, nine or 10 players performing.

“We just didn’t do enough to get a result. But you will have days like that.”

Indeed. Even Barcelona lost 3-2 on Saturday.

And at least Swansea don’t face Norwich again this season.