You could be forgiven for thinking James Norwood was totally satisfied as he made way for Danny Rowe towards the end of Town’s 5-0 romp at Bolton last weekend, having scored two goals and twice given one of his now cult wrestling celebration GIFs an airing.
But you’d be wrong because new boy Norwood, who had a part in all his side’s goals and whose double took his season’s tally to four, was instead reflecting on what might have been after he saw several scoring chances squandered.
Norwood admitted: "I was very frustrated. Obviously, it was great to get the three points but I looked at that game as a chance to score goals with a 99 per cent chance that we would win it.
"To come off having missed a couple of chances that I’m not used to missing was very frustrating, but after a 5-0 win with a clean sheet and three points we just move on to the next game.
"The missed chances were the type I would expect to put away and I did it regularly for Tranmere last season. But as a striker you can have off days and if my off day is scoring two then I’ll take that every day of the week.”
Norwood looks to be well on course to finish the current campaign the same way he did the last two, with 20-plus goals to his credit, but he smiled: "If Bolton stay in the league — and I hope they do — then, yes, but if they don’t I’m only on two goals.
"I’m a little bit ahead of schedule but the important thing is that we keep that number one spot in the league.
"I don’t think anyone takes a league position too seriously at this stage of the season. There are another four teams alongside us on 11 points so it’s a bit bunched up at the moment.
"It’s our goal difference that puts us top but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves, although it’s nice to be the side that the others are chasing.”
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!
NORS IS OFF THE MARK 🤩🤩🤩 pic.twitter.com/2fzTiHT7Cg– Ipswich Town FC (@IpswichTown) August 17, 2019
The more goals he scores, the more you can expect to see Norwood on social media with his wrestling-themed GIF celebrations. He caused quite a stir this week, with both the BBC Match of the Day team and wrestler-turned-Hollywood-movie-star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson also responding.
Asked if he was surprised by the reaction, Norwood laughed: "The first one got 1.3 million views and I never saw that coming in a million years.
"I had a little idea that it might take off again with The Rock but I had no idea it would go the levels it went to, with Match of the Day and Dwayne Johnson tweeting me.
"It was a bit of a crazy day for me but I like to have a bit of fun and show that the lads have a personality.
"I know the fans who come to our games see us as footballers but away from football we all have our own lives and our own personalities.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLL!!!!!
NORWOOD BATTERS IT STRAIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE AND TOWN LEAD! pic.twitter.com/UOcCmvrf6t– Ipswich Town FC (@IpswichTown) August 24, 2019
"We were all invited to do a GIF and basically do what we wanted. I’m a bit of a loud character and I thought I’d do something a little bit different. If it brings a few more people to Portman Road, all the better for us and the club.”
Norwood is a big wrestling fan and added: "I always have been and everyone our age sort of grew up on it. It was Kane, The Undertaker, Triple H and The Rock — they were the big guys — and it wasn’t what it’s like now when there’s a lot of different variations of it.
"We grew up watching it week in, week out, and a lot of my friends still watch it. I just thought I’d have a little bit of fun and it’s taken off, so now I’m under pressure to keep them going.
"I’ve got a couple more up my sleeve but it’s going to be difficult to reach the levels of the first couple of weeks, although I don’t want to disappoint either.
"You could say it’s a problem because I score a few but scoring too many goals is not a bad problem to have, although it might mean I have to re-use a couple of the celebrations. The more GIFs I can do, the more they will get shown and it means I’m scoring goals, so I’ll be happy.”