Andre Brooks was pitch perfect for Philippe Clement on a winning return to his boyhood club in Norwich City’s 3-1 Championship victory at Sheffield United.
The 23-year-old Sheffield-bred winger was part of the Blades’ academy since he was eight, but departed for a big-money summer move to Norwich that could top £9m.
Brooks had a shot kicked off the line in the build up to Mathias Kvistgaarden’s match-sealing strike, before he was substituted to a warm ovation from many home fans in the closing minutes.
“All praise to Andre,” said Clement. “He came back to the club that he loves, it's like his family here, so that's a difficult one as a as a young player for the first time.
"I know from the past, so we talked about that this past week, and he played a really good game. That's sometimes difficult because your emotions are sometimes bigger, but he did that really well. He played well.
“He was respectful towards their fans, their fans were also respectful towards him at the end of the game when he came off. So I think those things we want to see in football.
“I told you in my press conference (on Friday) I have a lot of respect towards Chris (Wilder) the way he prepares his teams - every time they're always full of passion, really direct and it's hard to handle.
“It was important to keep as much as possible control of the ball, not to give it away too easily. Although Sheffield United wanted to press us we came out really well several times.
"The first half, for me, was in balance. We took the lead before half-time, and it's an important momentum that you take, but I'm very pleased about how the team controlled the game in the second half.
"To do that in an away game with this crowd, with this manager also, it's a really positive thing.”
Clement was able to conduct the celebrations at full-time with the 2,500-strong travelling support after some uncomfortable early season away days at Millwall and Stoke.
“It's a massive part. Our club is really a family club,” he said. “Everybody in the region is fan of Norwich.
"We live a little bit in the outskirts of the UK so away games mean a lot of travelling and a long time on the road. They do a lot of effort to follow the team. They were with big numbers again.
"We were disappointed after the Stoke game that we couldn't give them the win. We wanted to react for them.
"It's really, really good for the fans for the players to feel the synergy together and that we can build on that again, like we did last season.”
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