THEY WERE STEELY GREY, slightly prickly and exuded a menacing intent with their every movement. But enough of the managers’ hairstyles, which at least provided attitude at Ewood Park. Nigel Worthington, the Norwich City manager, had expected more from his opponents as his comments last week referred to the bullying tactics of Blackburn Rovers. Instead, he discovered that the victors mirrored more the style of Morten Gamst Pedersen , the Lancashire side’s most influential player along with Tugay, the master of poised distribution.

Quite simply, Blackburn played with a smile on their face and the ball at their feet and not once was a stud or hand raised in intimidation. “This was a big game for us and (after Worthington’s comments) we needed to keep our feet on the ground in preparation,” Pedersen said. “I think we had something to show and we played some nice football.”

The Norway midfield player secured his fifth goal of the season in the seventeenth minute when lamentable defending by Simon Charlton was compounded by Robert Green’s efforts to save a solid but not unstoppable right-foot strike. In fact, Pedersen’s vicious execution at set plays troubled Norwich repeatedly. His free kick earned a corner that he took himself and from which Paul Dickov glanced a header to make it 2-0 shortly before half-time.

Signed by Graeme Souness from Tromso for £1.5 million in August, Pedersen’s brief encounter with the Scotsman lasted just one game before the former manager uprooted to Newcastle United, leaving doubt and uncertainty to linger in his last Blackburn acquisition. Now one of his country’s brightest young prospects appears to be fulfilling his vaunted promise.

“The difference is I am more settled now,” Pedersen, 23, said. “I was living out of a suitcase in a hotel for seven weeks, which is not ideal, but now I have my own flat and I turn up for training with a smile on my face. I can’t prove everything in just one match but each day I am improving a little and getting stronger.”

The win extended Blackburn’s cushion to eight points over Norwich, who occupy the final relegation place. “We are more than capable of looking up rather than down from now on,” Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, said. He shared a drink with Worthington after the game to bring a convivial closure to their public verbal ping-pong last week.

As Norwich travelled home on Saturday, they might have reflected on three decent first-half chances, two scuffed by Darren Huckerby and Jim Brennan while Dean Ashton squandered a clear opening with a lame attempt to finish — confirmation that the visiting team were as ineffectual up front as they were at the back.

Ashton’s careless crossfield pass created the third just after the hour when another error by Green allowed Dickov’s shot to squirt beneath him. By then, Norwich had already run up the white flag of surrender. Battered but never bullied into submission; by guile, not brute force.