VIRUS-PRONE ROTHERHAM BUGGING ROO
Farke hails flying Canaries as they soar towards Prem return
Rhodes Pukki
Ref: Tony Harrington
Cantwell
on a difficult pitch and against a highly-motivated side fighting for their lives.
“The way we responded in the second half was amazing with concentration, tactical discipline, commitment and spirit. The players wanted to turn this game around and we did that.
“I’m so proud with the winning mentality we showed.”
Norwich are 10 points clear of second-placed Watford and are destined to head straight back to the top flight.
Farke (right) added: “I think we’ll definitely finish in the top six. But we have to keep going.”
Owls boss Darren Moore quit League One promotionchasers Doncaster a fortnight ago because he believed he could save Wednesday from the drop. Yet he has failed to pick up a point in three games and a seventh straight defeat leaves them seven points from safety.
Asked if he still believes survival was possible for second-bottom Wednesday, he said: “I have to stay ultraconfident.
“We have still got the games to play, so we have to kept on working right to the end.
“I said to the players they have just gone toe-to-toe with the best team in the league and more than matched them.”
Indeed, the Owls were buoyed by the seventh-minute strike of Rhodes, who rifled from close range after Joey Pelupessy’s effort was blocked.
That sent confidence surging through Wednesday.
But Norwich, who went close in the first half when
Keiren Westwood repelled Lukas Rupp’s curling strike, upped the tempo after the break. Neat approach play from the Canaries saw a fine move which cut Wednesday apart and led to Pukki firing into the top corner in the 61st minute.
Farke’s men began to move devastatingly through the gears and Cantwell produced a fine left-foot finish which flew into the top corner.
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TODD CANTWELL (NORWICH)
WAYNE ROONEY wants the Football League to investigate Rotherham’s backlog of fixtures.
Derby are seven points clear of third-from-bottom Rotherham but the Yorkshire club have four games in hand. The EFL are looking into the circumstances around the current outbreak of Covid-19 at Rotherham which has caused three games to be postponed, but Rooney wants to take it further.
“It’s strange the amount of times Rotherham are picking up the virus,” said Rooney (above).
“They seem to keep picking up this virus and cancelling games and I don’t know when they are going to fit them all in.”
Rooney is worried that Rotherham will get an advantage from playing games near the end of the season when opponents might have little to play for.
“You’d hope the teams who are safe or not going for promotion, teams in the middle of the table, are going to field their strongest teams,” said the Rams boss.
“If not, it’ll be an advantage to them, which is maybe something they’ve looked at.”
Of Rotherham’s remaining 15 games, six are against sides with little to play for.
Rooney remains convinced Derby will stay up despite Saturday’s defeat by Millwall.
Shaun Hutchinson’s header just before half-time put Lions in front and they comfortably stayed there. Millwall boss Gary Rowett, once in charge of Derby, said: “We did our homework on Derby. We saw they score a lot of goals from set-pieces and dealt with that.”
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