STEELING THE SHOW
Farke’s side on the brink
DANIEL FARKE hailed Norwich’s “steel” as they moved to the verge of an immediate Premier League return.
Kieran Dowell won it with a stunning first-half free-kick as the Canaries continued their march to the title.
But this was a workmanlike victory unlike the champagne football from the midweek 7-0 win over Huddersfield.
Norwich could have clinched promotion had other results gone their way but Swansea and Brentford both won.
Yet with 90 points in the bag already, Farke should soon be tasting fizz after seeing off Wayne Rooney’s Derby.
His side now need just two more points to secure their promotion. And the City boss was thrilled to have banked the win ahead of games against Bournemouth and Watford.
The German coach, whose side are unbeaten in 13 games, said: “It was a hard-fought win not a magic night like Tuesday.
“But this has the same value for me as Tuesday.
“In football you can’t always punish opponents with seven or eight goals. It was not champagne football but we showed fighting steel.
“It was important to show this side and to get the clean sheet. I am happy we found another solution to win this game.
“The free-kick was worldclass. You needed a special technique which Kieran has. It was an un-saveable free-kick.
“My gut feeling is 90 points is always enough. But you can only really celebrate and relax when it is over the line.”
Norwich showed their class early on as Kenny McClean and Todd Cantwell had early efforts.
Dowell also hit the sidenetting with a left-foot free-kick.
It served as a marker as Norwich were awarded a freekick in a similar position.
This time the former Everton youngster curled a superb leftfoot effort into the top corner in the 21st minute.
Derby had few openings and couldn’t get past defender Grant Hanley and keeper Tim Krul, who did well to save from Teden Mengi and Patrick Roberts in the second half. Graeme Shinnie could have snatched a point in stoppage time but blazed over after Colin Kazim-Richards had dispossessed Krul outside the box.
But it is still just one win in 10 games for Rooney’s Rams who remain in grave danger of the drop.
“We know what we need to do,” said Rooney. “It’s still in our hands. If we perform like we did today we will be fine.
“The next games are going to be big games for us.”
DERBY: Marshall 6; McDonald 6 (Ebosele
84th), Wisdom 6, Mengi 6, Forsyth 6; Bird
7, Shinnie 6; Roberts 7,Lawrence 6 (Watson
84th), Jozwiak 6 (Sibley (69th) 6); KazimRichards 6
NORWICH: Krul 7; Aarons 7, Omobamidele
7, Hanley 8, Giannoulis 7; Skipp 7, McLean
8; Buendia 6 (Placheta (63rd) 6), Dowell 8 (Stiepermann (62nd) 6), Cantwell 6 (Tettey
89th); Pukki 6 (Hugill 84th)
STAR MAN: Kenny McLean
REF: M Salisbury