It was ‘Groundhog Day’ at Carrow Road, as Norwich again threw away a two-goal lead to draw with West Ham United.
It was all going so well… After a first half in which Norwich dominated, Robbie Brady opened the scoring with a superb finish into the top right-hand corner. Wes Hoolahan then slotted in 10 minutes later, doubling the Canaries lead and making it likely that Norwich would be leaving the drop zone.
However, West Ham (and Norwich’s defence) had other ideas. Victor Moses’ shot was saved by Ruddy but Dimitri Payet then hit in the rebound, making it 2-1. Just 3 minutes later Mark Noble equalised for the hammers with a fantastic finish from 18 yards out.
Norwich went into the game making a number of changes, most notably the return of John Ruddy into the Norwich side, replacing Declan Rudd. Other changes saw Cameron Jerome come in for Mbokani, and Nathan Redmond came in for Mulumbu.
West Ham had a number of injury problems going into the game and made a number of changes from their FA Cup win over Liverpool. Adrian, Sam Byram, James Collins and Alex Song replaced Darren Randolph plus West Ham’s injured contingent of Joey O’Brien, Winston Reid and Cheikhou Kouyate.
Norwich started off strong, with the Canaries putting together some good attacking moves. The game was a bit scrappy however, with both teams ending up with quite a high foul count.
Robbie Brady and Jonny Howson both had chances at the end of the first half, but neither could put City in front.
Norwich ended the game strongly after a lengthy period of West Ham pressure. Nathan Redmond put the ball just wide in the 95th minute before the following corner was cleared off the line.
It was a case of what might have been at Carrow Road, as things still look bleak for Alex Neil and Norwich City.
