FARKE’S BOYS ON EDGE OF GLORY...
Norwich party delayed
KIERAN Dowell notched a superb free-kick winner as Norwich triumphed at Derby – but the Canaries’ champagne remained on ice.
Daniel Farke’s men knew that victory yesterday would secure an instant return to the Premier League – if Brentford and Swansea both dropped points.
As it turned out, the Swans eased to a 3-0 victory at Millwall, while Brentford hammered Preston 5-0.
It means Norwich, who host Bournemouth next Saturday, need two more points to guarantee promotion. They now have a whopping 90 points from 41 games.
“My gut feeling was always that 90 points would be enough to win promotion,” said Farke. “So this win was really important to bring it over the line. It’s not completely done, and we cannot enjoy it properly yet.
“But the pressure is a little bit away and my feeling is we will definitely celebrate promotion at the end of the season.”
On a day littered with thumping wins, Bournemouth beat Coventry 4-1 in the Championship. In League One, Oxford won 6-0 at Crewe, AFC Wimbledon hammered Accrington 5-1 and Wigan won 4-1 at Doncaster.
In League Two, Exeter thrashed Cambridge 4-1.
NORWICH held off a spirited Derby to move to within two points of an instant return to the Premier League.
Wins for Swansea City and Brentford denied Daniel Farke’s side the chance to clinch promotion at Pride Park.
But Kieran Dowell’s magnificent first-half free-kick moved the Canaries on to 90 points and ensured that victory over Bournemouth next Saturday will seal the deal.
“If I’m honest, my gut feeling was always that 90 points would be enough to win promotion,” said a delighted Farke.
“So this win was really important to bring it over the line. It’s not completely done, and we cannot enjoy it properly yet. Brentford and Swansea have shown today that they are capable of winning all of their remaining games, so nothing is guaranteed.
“But the pressure is a little bit away now and my feeling is that we will definitely celebrate promotion at the end of the season.”
Defeat means injury-ravaged Derby have won just one of their past 10, but the Rams were unfortunate to take nothing from opponents who never approached the heights of Tuesday’s 7-0 win over Huddersfield.
Whether wearied by those exertions or stymied by a smart Derby plan, the visitors laboured.
Emi Buendia, so often City’s talisman, was off colour even before a sequence of heavy tackles forced him off. Top-scorer Teemu Pukki touched the ball 11 times. Todd Cantwell underwhelmed.
Even at half-cock, however, Norwich dominated the first half, peppering the Rams’ and goal briefly registering a 93 per
cent share of possession. Dowell, who missed the first half of the season with a knee injury, had already gone close with a free-kick before a slack passage of play by Craig Forsyth presented the 23-year-old with a second chance.
The former Everton man didn’t miss this one, rocketing a sensational left-footed effort into the top corner from 18 yards.
It was a goal that might have opened the floodgates. Derby, though, manned a stout defence and came out blazing in the second half. Colin Kazim-Richards should have done better after escaping the otherwise excellent Grant Hanley, but a nudge at the key moment allowed Tim Krul to smother his close-range effort.
The Dutchman then sprawled full length to save a swirling 20-yard effort from centre-back
Teden Mengi. And a week that began with welcome news of a takeover by Spanish businessman Erik Alonso was very nearly capped by a vital point.
Unfortunately for gaffer Wayne Rooney, Graeme Shinnie lived up to his name, miscuing over an open goal after Kazim-Richards had robbed Krul in the last minute of stoppage time.
“It’s not the result we wanted, but I think we can take encouragement from the performance,” said Rooney, whose side slipped to 20th, seven points above third-bottom Rotherham, who have four games in hand.
“The first 20-25 minutes, we showed Norwich too much respect. But after that you could feel the lads grow in confidence. In the second half, I thought we caused them a lot of problems.
“We know how Norwich play. If you squeeze them and press them high, they’ve got great quality and will play through you. We made them play around the sides, and it worked well.
“We need to take more care with the final ball but, overall, we deserved a point. Now we have a sequence of games where the performance is irrelevant. We have to take points.”
Which is exactly what Norwich did, to the delight of Farke.
“On Tuesday, we got so many compliments,” added the German. “Best Championship side ever. Best Norwich side ever. Biggest win in 80 years. Mentally, it is exhausting to then deliver in a difficult away game, after a long journey, against a side who is fighting. We had to find a different solution and we did.”