Norwich 2-1 Sunderland - Barnett and Morison fire Canaries to victory
Published 20:51 26/09/11 By Neil McLeman
Norwich celebrated their first Monday night Premier League game at Carrow Road since Delia Smith’s 'Letsby Avenue' rant with a rousing win over Sunderland.
But until a frantic final ten minutes, the Black Cats proved the perfect party guests for the Canaries victory party with a half-baked display of defending.
Back in February 2005, the merry Norwich owner entered the pitch at half-time against Manchester City to encourage “the best supporters in the world” to cheer their team to victory.
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Last night no such encouragement was needed as Paul Lambert’s side scored on either side of the break for their first home win in the top flight for over six years to climb up to ninth place.
Not until Kieran Richardson’s 86th-minute strike - and the five tense minutes of stoppage time - did Sunderland threaten to scrape a draw.
Steve Bruce is now the 3-1 second favourite to be the next manager sacked after only one win in his opening six games. His Sunderland have now also failed to win in 14 Premier League games on a Monday since 2002.
But after picking up only one point from their first two home games against Stoke and West Brom, the win was vital for the newly-promoted team.
Leon Barnett and Steve Morison also added their name to the growing list of Norwich goalscorers this season. And for the first time in the Premier League, they did not concede a penalty.
The only bad news for the Canaries was a late knee injury to James Vaughan.
Lambert, who has now managed teams to victory in all four divisions, said back-to-back wins were the perfect preparation for Saturday’s visit to Old Trafford.
“I am as proud as anything of them,” said the Scot. “I am delighted the way the lads saw it through, especially with ten men.
“I thought we deserved to win the game. Our home form is obviously going to be crucial to us. If we can keep this place with the feeling we have got and the crowd behind us, I think we will be alright.”
Both teams were unchanged from their victories last out with Norwich again fielding a starting team all from the British Isles.
Their domination of the first half was rewarded after 31 minutes when Elliott Bennett played a one-two with David Fox on the edge of the box and crossed for the unmarked Leon Barnett to prod home from three yards out.
The visitors showed more defensive naivity for the second Norwich goal. This time the other centre-back Russell Martin charged forward and slipped a ball through to Marc Tierney. The left-back chipped up a cross and Morison brushed aside a weak challenge from Wes Brown to power his header home for his first goal in yellow and green.
Nicklas Bendtner was denied his first league goal in 2011 by John Ruddy while sub Connor Wickham’s first touch was to mis-time a header straight at the Norwich keeper.
Richardson crashed home a cross-shot past the motionless Ruddy late on but it came too little, too late.
The bookmakers now reckon only Steve Keane’s job at Blackburn is under more threat.
“I take responsibility - I pick the team,” said Bruce. “But we played very, very well 10 days ago with the same team. Individual players, big players, international players have not performed well on the night.
“When you have too many having an off day, it makes for a difficult evening. Our defending for the two goals was awful That summed up our night.”
