OWEN Coyle has heaped praise on opposite number Paul Lambert for doing things his own way at Carrow Road.

A Champions League winner with Borussia Dortmund in his playing days, the Norwich City boss has earned rave reviews after working his way up the managerial ranks and leading the Canaries into the Premier League this season.

Lambert followed a similar route to Wanderers boss Coyle, both cutting their teeth at smaller clubs North of the Border before making the leap to English football.

The former Scotland international coached under Martin O’Neill at Celtic and managed Livingston before moving to Wycombe in League Two, and then Colchester United in League One, and has since guided Norwich to back-to-back promotions.

The two Paisley-born managers will go head-to-head at the Reebok this afternoon, and Coyle has been impressed by Lambert’s gradual evolution up the Football League ladder.

"He's always been a student of the game.He played in that good Motherwell team when Billy Davies was there,” he said. “Those type of boys together love talking football.

"When the legs give up, like they do with all of us, then you talk about trying your hand at managing.

"And because he had a spell in Germany, he's been able to look at different styles, even different attitudes towards the game. It's stood him in good stead, he's collated it and put it all together and ultimately put his own stamp on it.

"Worked under Martin O'Neill at Celtic so he's taken bits and pieces from managers he's worked under.

"But he is very much his own man and that's a mark of his intelligence. Sometimes you can become a clone of someone you've worked under.

"But you can't be like that. You have got to be your own man. He has built a very good team at Norwich."

This will be the first time Coyle has crossed swords with Lambert as a manager - although he regular came up against him in their playing days.

“I was playing in a provincial Scottish club while he was at Celtic, so you can draw your own conclusions on how it went,” the Wanderers boss joked.

But Coyle does rate Lambert as one of his best friends in the game - and believes his style could see him go on to manage one of the top clubs.

“You don't win Champions Leagues without being a top, top player but he went and worked at the coal face to learn his trade, as a lot of us have done, and gone on to progress from that in a terrific manner,” he said.

“I’ve got no doubts he’ll be a very successful manager but he remains a very humble person, a gem of a lad, and someone I’ve got a lot of time for.”