THE VERDICT: NORWICH 7 TOWN 0 TOWN FAIL TO COPE WITH BRILLIANT NORWICH
TOWN RATED
HUDDERSFIELD Town suffered their heaviest defeat for 34 years as they were comprehensively outclassed but Championship leaders Norwich City.
Realistically no Town fans would have expected anything out of this game, but Town’s failure to at least keep things respectable will have set a few nerves jangling ahead of Saturday’s visit from Rotherham United.
Win that game and Town’s relegation fears are probably behind them, but the nature of this performance will have some scared of the prospect of a Millers victory that would throw the relegation race back open.
The Canaries were sensational in the first half but Carlos Corberan’s side made it much too easy for them nonetheless, looking timid and frightened in the face of an onslaught in yellow.
In every regard the game was reminiscent of the 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth in December, with high-quality opposition repeatedly carving the Town defence wide open just for fun – and Norwich replicated that scoreline before half time even arrived.
Like that game few could have predicted the starting XI that Corberan named for this game. Pipa and Alex Vallejo both missed out with injuries sustained against Brentford at the weekend, but Fraizer Campbell and Yaya Sanogo were seemingly simply not preferred on this occasion.
In came Juninho Bacuna and Isaac Mbenza, both of whom have been regulars this season and whose selection was not so surprising, but so too did Richard Stearman for only his second start since November and Danny Ward for his first since January.
Lewis O’Brien moved out to left wing-back, a position he struggled in earlier this season, but Corberan clearly felt he was the best man for the job of keeping Norwich’s superb winger Emi Buendia quiet.
The Terriers were dealt a further
Pereira, Stearman (High 45), Keogh, Sarr, (Edmonds-Green 66), Hogg (Thomas 54), Duhaney, Mbenza, Holmes (Rowe 54), O’Brien (Brown 66), Bacuna, Ward. Subs: Elphick, Leutwiler, Campbell, Sanogo
blow in the warm-up as Ryan Schofield dropped out of the side feeling unwell, with Manchester United loanee Joel Pereira promoted to the starting lineup and Jayson Leutwiler replacing him on the bench.
Pereira had made just one prior appearance for Town – a disastrous outing in the 4-3 defeat away to Stoke in November – so he faced a big test after being unexpectedly thrust into the limelight.
Unfortunately his first call to action left something to be