CANARIES NEED WINS & A PRAYER

Keane header sinks sorry Norwich

PUBS may be reopening soon – but Michael Keane has already sounded the bell for last orders in the last chance saloon for Norwich.

The England defender’s second goal of the season left the Canaries socially distanced by six points on the Premier League seabed.

While Everton’s faint hopes of European football next season are still alive, Norwich are down to the last drops at the bottom of the glass.

Drink up, gentlemen. And if you must have one for the lift shaft on your way down, Manchester United’s scalp in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday would be a worthy consolation prize.

Boss Daniel Farke claimed the heatwave would favour Norwich’s chances of survival as opponents might struggle to raise a gallop.

But it was poor marking at a setpiece, not gas mark seven in kitchen goddess Delia Smith’s oven at Letsby Avenue, which cost Farke dearly. As a feast to set before a teatime audience live on the BBC, this was more forgettable than amnesia itself.

Norwich were vastly improved on the rabble crushed 3-0 by Southampton, but could hardly have been much worse. And while Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti still has an eye on Europe, for long periods here you would not have backed them to make it past the Birkenhead tunnel.

In the absence of fans, too many games have had the intensity of preseason friendlies. For 45 minutes, Everton never remotely threatened Tim Krul’s goal, and they were relieved to see Oriel Hernandez’s deflected shot graze a post.

They improved sufficiently after the break to justify the third away win of Ancelotti’s reign. It was somehow fitting a pedestrian spectacle should be settled in such mundane style – Keane nodding in a 55th-minute corner.

Corner, header, goal. An uninspired game got the uninspired winner it deserved.