Seagulls soar as Norwich hit rock bottom
PUB DOORS along the Brighton seafront swung open yesterday morning and by mid-afternoon, the time had come for Graham Potter and Co to put the champagne on ice.
Their manager wouldn’t admit it but, with this win, Brighton’s Premier League status is all-but secured for another year.
Leandro Trossard’s first-half goal was enough to push Norwich ever closer to a swift return to the Championship and give the Seagulls vital breathing space.
Now, with five games to play, Potter’s side have a nine-point cushion, having matched last season’s tally of 36 points.
Given how they have hovered above the drop zone for so long, that calls for a toast or two. But, given their stuttering season, it was never going to come easily.
In the fourth minute of stoppage time, Norwich substitute Adam Idah directed a header towards goal. The ball struck the inside of the post and bounced out.
At the final whistle, Norwich bodies dropped to the floor while the Brighton bench erupted. Soon, the scene cleared and Todd Cantwell sat alone, contemplating yet more heartache.
Six consecutive defeats have dented any hopes of a Norwich revival and consigned manager Daniel Farke to the worst run of his managerial career. A third relegation in seven seasons edges ever closer.
‘It’s a tough day for us,’ Farke said. ‘We knew it was more or less our last chance to be back in the mix… we tried everything but in the end, we didn’t show enough quality.’
On the scenes at the end, he added: ‘It’s important to feel this pain, I want my players to be devastated if the result is not there.’
Thirty six points has been enough to survive in each of the last three seasons but Brighton won’t count their chickens.
‘I don’t think it makes us safe,’ Potter said. ‘It’s a huge win but we are in a unique season and have to keep fighting to the end.’
Farke appeared to hand the initiative to his opposite number from the off, when he left both Teemu Pukki and Cantwell on the bench. Between them they have 17 league goals this season; the XI he named just had five. Combined.
Given their plight, you can perhaps forgive the contempt for conventional wisdom. But even after shuffling their pack, Norwich struggled for openings. At the other end, Aaron Connolly fired an early chance over before Brighton turned the screw either side of the water break.
First Trossard crumbled under a challenge from Max Aarons inside the penalty area, but neither Stuart Attwell nor VAR were convinced.
Four minutes later, Timm Klose surrendered possession and Neal Maupay freed Aaron Mooy, whose low cross was turned home brilliantly for Trossard’s fourth of the season.
Norwich failed to muster much of a riposte — Josip Drmic, who deputised for Pukki and was the starting XI’s joint-top scorer with one, was barely given a sniff.
Even during a tough baptism, Farke’s side had showed they could hurt anyone. But as the trapdoor has opened ever wider, that reckless approach has wilted under the suffocating threat of relegation.
They have now mustered just 16 goals in their last 28 league games.
Here, at least, they did rally after the break.
Brighton’s Dan Burn glanced a header just wide but then came Norwich’s brightest spell — their tempo increased and the threat level rose in turn.
Emi Buendia had a shot blocked before Jamal Lewis delivered a devilish low cross which needed only a finish. No one was there to meet it.
Then, just as the cavalry prepared to arrive, another penalty shout for Brighton. This time it was Tariq Lamptey, tireless down the right flank, who flung himself to the floor.
Fortunately for Cantwell, Pukki and Idah, the officials said no foul and the game remained there for the taking.
But nothing materialised until the final moments, when Idah’s chance would not go in. It would have only further delayed the inevitable.