LASSE COOKS UP A STORM FOR DELIA
AT A time of year when her cookbooks will be a popular accessory in homes up and down the country, it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire for Delia Smith as she faced the backlash from Norwich fans.
The Canaries faithful made it Christmas jeers rather than cheers for their once popular TV cook as Daniel Farke’s side were beaten by Brentford.
Chants of ‘we want Delia out!’ and ‘sack the board’ could be heard ringing around Carrow Road after Lasse Vibe struck twice in five first-half minutes to fire Brentford into a commanding lead.
Although City responded through Nelson Oliveira in second-half stoppage time, Canaries supporters had already made their feelings about the club’s hierarchy clear.
But manager Farke leapt to the defence of his bosses after he slammed his side’s display.
He said: “Delia Smith and Michael (Wynn Jones – fellow owner) are not responsible for this group of lads, so I’m responsible for the performance on the pitch. I’m responsible for the lads and it’s totally not up to Delia.
“All I can say is that she is the owner who tries everything to bring success to this club, with all her heart. And I totally appreciate this.
“So if there’s someone who has to be blamed for this first half, it’s me. One hundred per cent.”
Brentford were the better side from the start and had the first chance when Ollie Watkins let fly from an angle on the left after just two minutes, but his curling shot thumped against the inside of the far post, with Vibe guiding the rebound wide.
Norwich struggled to get a foothold in the game although they went close just before the half-hour mark.
Timm Klose’s scuffed shot caused mayhem in front of goalkeeper Daniel Bentley, with Marley Watkins and Mario Vrancic both unable to get a decisive touch.
It was a rare moment of concern for Brentford as they deservedly got their noses in front when the impressive Romaine Sawyers picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box and threaded a perfectly-weighted pass through for Vibe to coolly slide home.
It was a well-worked goal helped by poor defending, and more was to follow five minutes later as the visitors doubled their lead. Again, Sawyers was the architect as he took advantage of the time and space afforded to him to pick out the run of Vibe on the left hand side of the box, and again the Danish striker picked his spot in the corner to beat an exposed Angus Gunn.
Norwich started the second half on the front foot, with Alex Pritchard firing a shot across goal and Oliveira testing Bentley with a glancing header before Vrancic was just over with a speculative effort from distance.
Norwich finally got one back a minute into stoppage time when Oliveira swept home a cross from the right, but it was too little, too late.
Bees boss Dean Smith said: “It’s important because we’ve had a slow start, we had three points from the first seven games when we were playing very good football.
“We probably deserved more out of that but we’ve lost just two of the last 16 games now.
“If we can replicate that again we’ll be there or thereabouts but we can only take it one game at a time.”