Cam has Canaries on the rise
NORWICH boss Daniel Farke said there are ‘many reasons’ why his team are on a seven-game unbeaten streak, which continued with victory at Reading.
A superb free-kick from James Maddison saw him score for the second consecutive match before Liam Moore bagged an equaliser for the Royals.
However, a second-half header from Cameron Jerome, his first league goal of the season, saw the Canaries return home with three points.
“When you have such a change in your results it’s not about one topic, many topics must come together,” Farke said.
“There are many reasons for our recent results. During the international break, we really had time to work on our defensive work and we improved so much.
“So many of our players in our defence especially had came in after injuries and they had to play without a pre-season, so they had time to work on their fitness. Then you have a really good result and that’s good for confidence and that created a good attitude and atmosphere.”
Norwich got off to a flyer in the tenth minute when Maddison curled home a free-kick from about 30 yards out into Vito Mannone’s top right-hand corner, leaving the Italian goalkeeper no chance of saving it.
However, it took Reading just three minutes to level as from a free-kick of their own, taken by Sone Aluko on the right, Moore held off Jerome at the back post to head home.
Both teams kept up the pace in this end-to-end tussle with Jerome hitting the post after latching onto a ball over the top by Timm Klose.
Despite not overly dominating proceedings, Reading were edging first half possession and territory and Garath McCleary nearly put them ahead, but failed to steer a lofted shot on target.
Neither side could find the net again before the break, but City only had to wait seven minutes after the restart.
Maddison this time was the provider as his corner from the left evaded several heads before Jerome nodded the ball home at the back post from a tight angle.
After this, Norwich sat back and let Reading come onto them, with central defenders Klose and Christoph Zimmermann putting up a sturdy wall.
The hosts struggled to break the Canaries down, with Chris Gunter coming the closest to scoring when his effort skimmed the crossbar.
Reading’s chances were boosted in injury-time when Marley Watkins was sent off after a double-footed challenge on Gunter, but they could not use the little time they had to utilise the advantage.
“It was a disappointing game for us,” said Reading boss Jaap Stam.
“As you can probably expect, you always want to have a good result, so it is not a good feeling for ourselves and for everyone at the club to lose.
“Conceding two goals from two set-pieces is also disappointing.
“I didn’t think we had a bright start to the game and that led to the free-kick that we conceded from.
“After that goal, we had a good reaction and got back into the game.
“But then we conceded again from a corner and you don’t want to be conceding goals like this.”