STEAL CITY!
Norwich late strikes pile on pressure for Pulis and Owls
EEH, ba bah glum. In th the city of She Sheffield, the lea league tables r read like a ransom n note. United are a adrift at th the bottom i in the p enthous e a and, after t their raw de deal at Letsby Avenue Avenue, Wednesday regain r e g a i ned the Cham Champi o n s h i p wooden spoon. Not s since the Full Monty has the Steel City become be such an orde ordeal city. Wedn Wednesday boss Tony Pu Pulis has never been relegated in his 28 years as a manager, and his harshest critics would not cross the road to watch some of his 1,132 games in charge of 10 clubs.
But make no mistake – the Owls are bang in trouble, and every time troubleshooter Pulis puts his proud record on the line, you wonder if he might have landed the dud bulb among the fairy lights.
Even when they led through Josh Windass, they could not get an even break.
Aussie referee Jarred Gillett denied them a clear- cut penalty. Walls of Jericho, Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall? Take your pick – it wasn’t just a stone- waller, it was a monument to bricks and mortar.
Then, in the last 10 minutes, they were undone by Norwich sub Josh Martin, 90 seconds after he came off the bench, and Max Aarons (celebrating with Martin, left) fired the winner – both from Mario
Vrancic assists. How’s your luck? Pulis looked set to break his duck at Wednesday after five games, only to be trumped by a
19- year- old kid’s maiden goal in senior football and a full-back’s first goal in
720 days.
Norwich did not just get out of jail – they bust out of Alcatraz to reclaim the No.1 spot in the Championship as 2,000 fans returned to the parish of Saint Delia.
Martin (who was cheered on by Canaries supremo Deliah Smith, above) said: “It’s an amazing feeling, they were great scenes. It was great to have the fans back, too.
“To get my first goal, it’s amazing. The sole mission when I came on was to run in behind and try and score and create goals for the team to win the game. Teams try to sit in against us and stop us from playing and it’s tough. But we seem to always find a way. Going down 1-0, we had to take risks. “We had to go for it because we were losing. It was kind of surreal. When it happened, it was hard to know what to do, but I knew we needed another goal.” Pulis groaned: “The team has got used to losing, and not grinding it out if they have to. “When that time comes, and the pressure mounts, they get paid to defend well and be resilient.”
NORWICH: McGovern 6, Aarons 7, Hanley 7, Gibson 6, Sorensen 6, Skipp 7, Vrancic 8 (Dickson-Peters 90), Buendia 7, Stiepermann 6 (Martin, 79, 7), Placheta 5 (Tettey 89), Pukki 7
SHEFF WED: Wildsmith 6, Odubajo 7 (Kachunga 88), Lees 7, Borner 6, Van Aken 5, Iorfa 6 (Pelupessy 53, 5), Bannan 8, Harris 7 (Brown 88), Paterson 5, Reach 7, Windass 6 (Palmer, 66, 6)