West Brom 0-1 NorwichAway team scorersRobbie Brady 50
Robbie Brady, Ireland’s goalsoring hero in their Euro 2016 play-off victory away to Bosnia and Herzegovina, scored the goal that lifted Norwich City out of the relegation zone as Alex Neil’s team won for the first time in 11 games.
With Newcastle United and Sunderland, dropped into the bottom three, playing on Sunday, Norwich gave themselves a fighting chance of staying up with a hard-earned victory at The Hawthorns.
For the first time since December, West Bromwich Albion lost at home and Norwich won away. Brady was the hero, scoring five minutes after the break with an opportunist goal, as Norwich kept a clean sheet away from home for the first time this season. Oddly enough, this was the fourth consecutive time the away team has won this fixture without conceding.
Norwich were brave, playing Patrick Bamford off Dieumerci Mbokani, as well as Matt Jarvis and Brady on the flanks. It was a move that paid off and, with Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Sunderland their next three opponents, Norwich can hope to keep their destiny in their own hands.
West Brom, previously unbeaten at The Hawthorns in 2016, had started confidently, and when John Ruddy could only palm Craig Gardner’s corner out, Salomón Rondón teed up Claudio Yacob for a shot from outside the penalty area that fizzed past the top corner of the Norwich goal.
Norwich came back and played with cohesion in the middle third, but clear cut chances were at a premium. Indeed the nearest we came to a goal in the first period arrived four minutes before the interval when Gary O’Neil, sporting a head bandage for an injury sustained in last week’s confidence-boosting draw with Manchester City, gave the ball straight to Stéphane Sessègnon who set off for goal pronto but pulled his shot just wide as he entered the area.
The game was neat and tidy enough but lacked any real edge until Brady’s goal five minutes after the break. With West Brom effectively safe from relegation, having rebuilt their reputation as hard to beat at The Hawthorns, and Norwich playing timidly on the back of six consecutive away defeats, few nails were being bitten.
That all changed when Norwich made their breakthrough. Suddenly belief pervaded their approach. It was a fine move that led to a scruffy goal. Bamford laid a pass back neatly into midfield where the ball was played up the inside-left channel for Mbokani, who looked up and played an intelligent square pass for Jarvis.
The former Wolves winger got on the front foot to come inside Jonny Evans but, just as the goal opened up for him, he bungled his shot. Fortunately for Norwich, Brady reacted with alacrity and pounced to slot in his third goal for the club this season, a strike that could end up as important for Norwich as his late goal away to Bosnia and Herzegovina in November.
Without an away win since they triumphed at Manchester United the week before Christmas, Norwich started playing with more pzazz. The crosses that were coming in were of a good quality, but the presence in the penalty area was lightweight. Indeed, when O’Neill crossed towards the back post from the right wing, it was the diminutive Brady who managed to get half a header in.
West Brom managed to turn the tide, at least in the flow of play, when Pulis withdrew one of his four central defenders, Jonas Olsson, and introduce a winger at left-back, in James McClean, with Evans reverting to his more customary position alongside Gareth McAuley.
Still Norwich defended resolutely, however, the home side unable to make a clear chance to speak of, even after the hard-working Craig Gardner was replaced by the more creative Alex Pritchard.
Guardian
