CANARY YELLER
Farke sees record winning run slip away and then blasts EFL for not looking after players
FURIOUS Daniel Farke accused EFL chiefs of ignoring player welfare.
The Norwich manager (left) has not had much to complain about this season.
The Canaries sit eight points clear at the top with as many games to go after almost equalling a club record of 10 straight wins.
Carrow Road’s current crop would have replicated a winning streak from 1985-86 had Rovers substitute Sam Gallagher not cancelled out Kenny McLean’s opener. City remain on course for a second Championship title in three years, although managers always insist they care about nothing but the next game. And that’s Farke’s beef – the trip to Preston on Good Friday is less than 48 hours after half his team is on international duty.
Some will not make it back in time while others will, but in what shape?
The German, who also has midfielder Onel Hernandez travelling all the way to Guatemala to make his Cuba debut this week, cannot understand why pleas for a 24-hour extension have been ignored. He said: “I’m struggling to respect this decision. It is against all the values that we want to stand for.
“It is against the quality, fair play and integrity of the competition. We have these lovely stickers about the wellbeing of players and mentalhealth awareness days but if we have this decision then we can put all these lovely stickers and buttons in the bin. I could understand it if the tickets were already printed and police organised but it’s not even a
TV game and is being played in an empty stadium. It’s not difficult to postpone it to Saturday.”
Farke saw defenders Ben Gibson and Dimitris Giannoulis badly hurt against Rovers. It is feared Gibson, who was taken off on a stretcher (below, left), faces a lengthy lay-off after rolling an ankle late on. Giannoulis suffered concussion (below) in a first-half clash Rankin-Costello.
McLean (below) opened the scoring in the 53rd minute following a one-two with Kieran Dowell before Gallagher got the better of Jacob Sorensen to head home Harvey Elliott’s freekick 13 minutes from time.
Rovers have just one win in their last 12 games but were worthy of their point, having pressed City hard with a youthful front three that included John Buckley. The 21-year-old said: “We’ve shown we can play against the best team in the League – we went toe to toe with them.”
NORWICH: Krul 6, Aarons 7, Hanley 7, Gibson 7 (Zimmermann 83), Giannoulis 6 (Sorensen 29, 5), Skipp 7, McLean 7, Buendia 6, Dowell 6 (Stiepermann 67, 5), Cantwell 6, Pukki 6
BLACKBURN: Kaminski 8, Rankin-Costello 6 (Bennett 70, 5), Lehihan 8, Harwood-Bellis 7, Douglas 6, Rothwell 6, Evans 6 (Downing 70, 5), Holtby 6 (Johnson 86), Dolan 6, Buckley 6 (Elliott 64, 7), Brereton 7 (Gallagher 64, 7)
MOTM with
Joe
DARRAGH LENIHAN (BLACKBURN)