Hot Toddy warms up Farke’s men
NORWICH City boss Daniel Farke was impressed with the way his side responded to an early setback as they beat Rotherham to move back to the top of the Championship, after being temporarily knocked off their perch by Leeds.
The Canaries didn’t have things all their own way at Carrow Road, with Rotherham going in at the break one up thanks to a 10th-minute goal from Richie Towell, who latched on to a loose ball after Tim Krul could only parry a Will Vaulks shot.
The Millers almost doubled their advantage nine minutes later when a swift break ended with Joe Newell being brought down just outside the box. Referee Stephen Martin played good advantage as the ball fell into the path of Vaulks and the visitors’ skipper was desperately unlucky to see his shot hit the inside of one post and then almost hit the other bejury going out for a goal-kick. But the hosts took complete command in the second half and never looked back after youngster Todd Cantwell had fired home his first senior goal after 55 minutes.
It was a magic moment for Norfolk-born Cantwell, who hit a sweet close-range finish high into the roof of the net after Teemu Pukki had cut the ball back into his path, with a clever Mario Vrancic pass having set the move in motion.
The Canaries deservedly made it 2-1 after 70 minutes. This time Cantwell was the provider, picking out 18-yearold right-back Max Aarons’ run into the box with a glorious chipped pass from the left which his young colleague nodded past the exposed keeper.
Norwich rounded off the win six minutes from time following a terrible blunder by Rotherham’s Semi Ajayi. The big defender was caught in possession by Marco Stiepermann, who simply rolled the ball sideways for Pukki to slide home.
“It was a difficult start for us and it was then important that we showed the right mentality,” said Farke.
“I was delighted with the way the team responded. For the first 25 minutes it was tough but for the next 65 minutes we were brilliant going forward and at the back we didn’t allow them a single chance. In the end, it was a well-deserved win and we could easily have scored five of six goals. It was good to see Todd back after infore and it was also good to see him playing well and coming up with an end product Max has also done well today, and it was good to see him getting on the end of something and scoring a goal.”
Rotherham boss Paul Warne was disappointed his side were unable to build on their promising start.
“In the end I thought Norwich deserved the win – they created enough chances to have won the game comfortably,” he said. “But we got a good set-piece goal to go ahead early on and it could have been easily have been 2-0. We gave a good, well-coached side a few problems but we lost a couple of players to injury and in the second half they dominated the game.”