That run of four wins on the bounce stuttered to a halt, rather than collapsed around us, as it was a lacklustre performance reminiscent of the opening day defeat to Wolves. It started evenly – both sides had chances and it took a good team move and some nice work from Redmond to work the ball into a scoring position. Redmond whipped a cross in from the right after beating his man, before Grabban rose the highest to score a wonderful header against his former club – a muted celebration, after the visiting fans had shown their respect for him earlier in the match.
After that, Norwich didn’t kick on as one would have liked. They coasted along without getting out of second gear. Lafferty had chances and should – rather than could – have extended City’s lead, but it was one of those days. Grabban and Redmond also tested ex-Canary Lee Camp in the Bournemouth goal, but most of the efforts were straight at the ‘keeper and were easily to stop.
Deep into first half stoppage time, however, Bournemouth were level. Callum Wilson – the man bought to be Lewis Grabban’s replacement – was left unmarked on the six-yard box when Simon Francis delivered a low cross from the right-hand side and coolly slotted past Ruddy. Redmond didn’t track back and cover Garrido, with Francis bypassing the Norwich defence all too easily.
The second half did not provide much entertainment. Norwich looked unable to break down the Bournemouth defence and quickly resorted to route one football after Cameron Jerome came on. Josh Murphy offered a more direct outlet down the left wing, but he fired well over the bar after cutting inside.
After the match, Neil Adams spoke to BBC Sport and said, “I was hoping for three points and we only ended up with one but overall I think it was a fair result. We switched off for their goal and it cost us.”
Overall, it was a disappointing performance but a reminder that Norwich are not simply going to walk this division, and that City need to find another source of goals and not rely too heavily on the prolific Lewis Grabban. They also need to be more clinical in front of goal – it was the same as the Ipswich win. Norwich had enough chances to win the match, but did not take them. Grabban has the ability to score, he’s shown that, but he needs to up his conversion rate – especially if we get promoted back to the Premier League. There will be a game where we get one or two chances instead of the usual ten or eleven, and we need to make sure we take that chance.
Player Ratings
Ruddy – 7
Whittaker – 6
Turner – 7
Martin – 6
Garrido – 6
Tettey – 7
Johnson – 6
Redmond – 6
Hoolahan – 6
Lafferty – 5
Grabban – 7
Josh Murphy (Lafferty, 61′) – 6
Jerome (Redmond, 71′) – 6
