Cup action returned to Carrow Road for another season and Crawley Town were this year’s opponents in the second round. After no success under Lambert or Hughton in cup competitions, the 14,000 fans that turned up were hoping Adams would approach things slightly differently.
The league one outfit arrived at Carrow Road with confidence seeing that 5 of the Norwich starting 11 were youngsters. New signings Jerome and Cuellar were also given the chance by Adams. It seemed the optimism from Crawley fans soon vanished though when the game kicked off and Norwich controlled possession.
McFadden who started in centre back alongside new signing Cueller instantly impressed the fans putting in a few early challenges. The Murphy twins who are now an integral part of this Norwich team looked lively as ever darting about the pitch graciously causing havoc to the Crawley back line.
The Crawley fans were in fine voice signing the likes of ‘we’re all off to Wembley’ but were soon silenced when Jerome grabbed a debut goal on the 14 minute mark. Whittaker’s long range shot was spilled by Jensen straight into the path of Jerome who couldn’t miss from close range.
This goal seemed to spur Crawley on who were determined not to let their travelling fans down. The experienced midfield pairing of Surman and Elliot Bennett dealt admirably with breaking up play, something we have got used to now with Johnson and Tettey. The back line were not as busy as in previous weeks but still had work to do, once again Whittaker looked the weak link with sloppy passes and clumsy footwork; he certainly provided experience though which will be a huge learning curve for McFadden.
Half Time: Norwich 1-0 Crawley
There were talks from some fans that this was the most exciting football they had watched in years – I could not agree more. The way Adams has got these lads playing is dynamic and attractive, and so far it’s getting results.
Just 4 minutes after the break Josh Murphy grabbed a goal that was assisted by his twin brother. A Gerrard-esque switch from Jacob was met by Josh who drove at Crawley’s defence and rifled a shot into the bottom right hand corner to Jensen’s despair. Adams was jubilant on the side line due to his academy lads making such an impact in what was an important game for the Canaries.
Crawley were not out of this game though and were pushing hard for an equaliser. Their persistence finally payed of when Cuellar sliced a shot past the flapping Rudd from a low driven cross. It was not what Cuellar wanted on his debut, having been superb up until that point.
After what had been a fantastic first half for the Canaries it seemed that they had forgotten to defend. Consistent sliced clearances and a lack of willingness to close down was an all-too-common theme which would have been taken advantage of against better opposition. Rudd was called upon far too many times but showed extreme maturity to stop Crawley from scoring a second equaliser, making a few incredible sharp saves.
The ability and maturity of this much changed Norwich team shone through though and they once again dominated possession. There was still time for one more goal for Norwich and Josh Murphy who struck a venomous shot which flew into the top right hand corner.
Full Time: Norwich 3-1 Crawley
Match Ratings:
Rudd : 7 Whittaker : 6 Cuellar : 6 McFadden : 7 Martin : 7 Surman : 6 E.Bennett : 6 Josh Murphy : 8 Jacob Murphy : 7 Jerome : 7 Loza : 6
Subs :
Becchio : 6
Hall-Johnson : 6
