City livewire Cody McDonald has admitted that the Canary squad are still on trial after boss Paul Lambert made yet more changes for the Carling Cup defeat to Sunderland.
After an extremely bold start to his Carrow Road managerial career � where Lambert made six, sweeping changes to the side that lost at Brentford � he made a further six last night.
The Scot admitted afterwards that he is going to give more or less everyone some game time so he can decide who is in it for the long haul.
And McDonald revealed that everyone has been putting in that extra yard or two at Colney in a bid to impress their new chief.
“Yes, I suppose there is a feeling that we're on trial,” said the former Dartford man. “In training, everyone wants it a lot more, and maybe that is for the wrong reasons.
“But the manager has come in and on Saturday he changed the whole complexion of the team.”
In fairness, he is one player that has caught the eye – despite only making substitute appearances – during the two games of Lambert's reign and he will be looking for a starting berth against Hartlepool this weekend.
But he will be hoping to return to his normal role up front after a fleeting goalkeeper's stint in last night's 4-1 Mackems defeat.
Ben Alnwick's collision with Frazier Campbell and the resulting red card for Michael Spillane meant the likeable Essex boy ended up between the sticks for the last seven minutes
However, McDonald certainly wasn't considering investing in a pair of gloves any time soon. He'll leave that to the pros…
“No, definitely not,” he said with a smile on his face. “I think Declan [Rudd] and Mickey [Theoklitos] would have something to say about that.
“The manager called for Chrissy Martin to go in but me and Chris said it would be better for one of the top two to go in goal, so I stepped forward out of the two of us as I don't mind going in goal – it's just one of those things.
“To be honest, I didn't really know what I was doing but I just got the defenders as close to the post as possible.
“It was a bit nervy with the goal-kicks as well but it's just one of those situations where someone has got to do it.
“It was my first time in goal, especially at this level of football anyway. Obviously it was a bit of a tough situation for the team to be in anyway but someone's got to do it unfortunately.”
McDonald certainly looked lively in his normal position after he replaced Simon Whaley for the last half an hour and it was his header which cannoned off the post and into the path of Wes Hoolahan for City's goal.
And despite the one-sided scoreline, the Chelmsford-born striker insisted there were some positives to take out of the clash with Steve Bruce's men.
“The game was the disappointing thing,” he said. “But we've got to just look at the next one now and hopefully make it better.
“But I thought we got off to a bright start until the first goal. We played some nice football and probably were equal on chances.
“Unfortunately it's just one of those things where the gap did show just a little bit towards the end and we were on the wrong side of it.”
And despite the positives, McDonald echoed his manager's thoughts when admitting they had to tighten up at the back after conceding their 13th Carrow Road goal of the season. Remember, we're still in August.
“We've got to stop conceding these sloppy goals and if we do that against a team of Sunderland's quality you're going to get punished more than the teams would in League One.”
Tom Haylett
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