Norwich love-in as Farke’s boys clinch the title

A CORNER of Villa Park turned yellow and green as Norwich City lifted the Championship trophy in front of 3,000 jubilant travelling fans. Aston Villa players sportingly formed a guard of honour for the new champions who won 2-1 thanks to Teemu Pukki’s 29th league goal of the season and a late strike from Mario Vrancic. ‘To win the title in front of a sold-out stadium against a very good team, it’s almost too romantic but it fits in with our season,’ said Norwich manager Daniel Farke. ‘Most players only have two or three chances to lift a trophy. These moments don’t come around too often and you never forget them. ‘We deserved it with 94 points and nearly 100 goals.’ For Villa, whose 14th-minute equaliser came from Jonathan Kodjia’s flick, Dean Smith named a weakened side with Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg against West Brom in mind. Of the guard of honour, Smith said: ‘We wanted to show our respect to Norwich. But we didn’t deserve to lose.’