Norwich City’s supporters did their bit at Wigan – now Max Aarons want to repay them with the big Championship prize.
The Canaries were far from at their best at the DW Stadium in front of 5,300 travelling fans, but Teemu Pukki’s late equaliser extended their current unbeaten run to 10 games with a 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Wigan Athletic.
What’s more, Daniel Farke’s leaders potentially have the chance to seal automatic promotion on Good Friday – should other results go their way.
Aarons said: “Wigan is on the other side of the country to Norwich, and I saw people leaving at 5am this morning – so for them to get behind us and come all this way to cheer us on this Sunday, that’s what we need and we’re really grateful for it.
“They turned out in numbers, a good 5,000 and they were really loud the whole way through. As players, we can’t ask for any more.
“It was crazy. I actually said to Jamal (Lewis) as we were walking out, I said wow. We looked to our left and there was a big yellow wall. It was brilliant.
“We’ve put ourselves in this position and we’ve got to finish off the job. The fans are backing us the whole way through. They have been brilliant the whole season and now we’ve got to repay them for turning out in numbers week in, week out.”
MORE: Wigan 1-1 Norwich City – How the Championship unfolded
For Aarons to earn promotion in his first season of senior football would be an achievement in itself.
In fact, in his 36 league outings since making his debut at relegated Ipswich Town in the opening weeks of the season, Aarons has tasted defeat just three times.
“Yeah, I think it’s three – I mean it is crazy,” smiled the EFL’s young player of the year. “Sometimes I look and think, wow. It’s mad but I’ve just got to carry on performing and we’ve just got to get over the line.
“It would be amazing, especially in my first professional season. It would be the icing on the cake – but we’ve just got to stay focused. Points like this one could come through in the end and be big to us.
“You can feel some people getting tense and you see the talk around it all from other fans and things like that. It’s easier said than done, but we’ve just got to focus on what we’re doing.
“What’s got us here is playing really good football and playing well, and we’ve got to stick to that.”
• For the latest Norwich City news and opinion follow Michael Bailey on the following channels…
Michael Bailey on Twitter @michaeljbailey
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here