Oliver Norwood hopes his personal experiences at Wembley will serve Fulham well when they face Aston Villa in the Championship play-off final.
The Northern Ireland international will be one of the few members of the Whites’ squad who have experience of the big stage – having played for England’s under 16s in 2007 and been part of Reading’s beaten FA Cup semi-final squad in 2015.
He told the Daily Mail that Fulham haven’t been afforded the opportunity of a pre-match peek at the national stadium. “As a squad it’ll be the first time we’ve been there on Saturday. The gaffer just wants it to be normal – we turn up at the stadium on the day of the game and play.”
“We haven’t been down there but I think a few of the lads have been involved in games there in the past. I’ve been lucky to be involved in two games there… (but) we just have to turn up, we know what we have to do. ‘It’s just (about) doing what we normally do, what we always do. Don’t change anything, don’t be having selfies or taking photos of the stadium, just treat it as another normal game.”
“You’re bound to get nervous, excited and go through the whole range of emotions because there is nothing like it in world football. The Championship play-off final is a massive, massive occasion. We know that but it’s about staying level-headed and keeping calm and producing the goods on Saturday. The manager’s message has been quite clear that it’s just another game. It’s literally just a different pitch with a bigger stadium around it.”
“It’s very relaxed, very calm, the manager doesn’t say much. He does his work with us in the week and leaves us to prepare, get ready, get focused on the game.’ He adds: ‘We don’t need ranting and raving before a game, if you can’t get yourself up for the play-off final then there is something wrong. It’s a wonderful group of people, the staff and players have a real bond and there’s a real bond between the players and fans.”
“They’ve waited 43 years for a trip to Wembley and hopefully we can provide them with a very happy day on Saturday. We know it’s going to be very difficult, we’re not expecting to just turn up and play nice football and walk away with the victory. We know we’re going have to dig deep at times, Villa are going to put us under pressure, they’re a good side with massively experienced players and whoever wins on Saturday will deserve it.”
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