Brady breathes life into Norwich bid for survival
ALEX NEIL had decamped to a Carrow Road concourse last week when, unprompted, he said something scarcely believable.
After watching his Norwich side hold Manchester City to a 0-0 draw, Neil suggested the Canaries — then on a 10-game winless run in the Premier League — could well be the team to do a Leicester.
Not this year’s Leicester, of course, but Nigel Pearson’s 2014-15 vintage. There is always one, Neil argued, who surprise from nowhere.
The statistics had not stacked up, however — his side having collected only two points from the last 30 on offer — and Neil failed to mention that one team always sink like a stone. Until this spirited win, Norwich had appeared more the latter.
Robbie Brady had other ideas, slamming an effort past Ben Foster to breathe life into this improbable survival bid as Norwich kept their first away clean sheet of the season to send shockwaves through the North East. Today’s clash between Newcastle and Sunderland just became even tastier for Rafa Benitez and Sam Allardyce.
Lose and there is no longer the buffer of Norwich, out of the bottom three and eyes on Swansea. Neil’s side may have played two games more, but both teams cannot win at St James’ Park.
‘I’ll watch that game but can’t influence it,’ said Neil. ‘But that’s why today was crucial. If we didn’t win and Sunderland then did it’s out of our hands. I’m a bit tired now, hopping up and down.’
Dieumerci Mbokani was the architect for the winner. He held possession well and squared to Matt Jarvis, who caught Jonny Evans on his heels. The winger stumbled, the ball bobbled loose and Brady fired home. It was all Norwich needed after a stoic defensive display to match last week’s draw with City.
West Brom boss Tony Pulis labelled it ‘such a poor goal’ but Norwich will take all they can get. That bit of luck, Jarvis miscontrolling into Brady’s path, has been absent since the turn of the year. The goalscorer would later come off with blurred vision after landing on his neck. Neil was adamant results would turn and what a time to start: Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Sunderland are up next. He added: ‘We’ve been on the wrong end so it’s nice we got something favourable.’
Pulis was not pleased. West Brom had been unbeaten in their last eight home games but looked flat for large spells. ‘This week they have trained as well as I’ve been here,’ he said. ‘It shows it’s not about Monday to Friday. It was a really poor game. We didn’t do anything.’