Cup win will lift Norwich in league battle too, says Farke
Grant Hanley and Josip Drmic got the goals that carried Norwich through to the fifth round for just the fourth time in a quarter of a century but Daniel Farke generated the positive energy that carried the day.
Not for the Norwich manager the bland platitudes of Premier League survival being all that matters. Farke has the sixth round of the competition already in his sights – a stage the club have not visited since 1992 – as well as maintaining his bid for the considerable double of avoiding relegation.
“We want to be as successful as possible in the FA Cup and also, next week, work on our little miracle, surprise everyone and stay in the Premier League,” said Farke.
“We have not been that successful in the cup in recent years and someone told me that we have not made the sixth round for 30 years, so a win like this is always good for confidence.”
Farke has hit upon a winning formula in the FA Cup, with this deserved success following a 4-2 win at Preston in round three. This one was far more surprising, however, given Burnley had beaten Leicester and Manchester United in the past week and made only five changes to the line-up that won at Old Trafford.
The tone was set after 10 seconds when the excellent Mario Vrancic played through Drmic who shot wide.
That was the start of an open game in which Hanley, a defender formerly with Burnley’s hated local rivals Blackburn and jeered throughout by home fans, opened the scoring in 53 minutes when he rose above Kevin Long to head in Vrancic’s free-kick.
Vrancic was also involved when City doubled their lead four minutes later. His excellent cross saw Lukas Rupp’s shot saved by Joe Hart only for Drmic to tap in the rebound.
Burnley halved the deficit after 72 minutes. Norwich failed to deal with Aaron Lennon’s cross and Erik Pieters ended an untidy scramble with a crisp shot from just inside the area to set up an ending that Farke described as “more spicy than we wanted”.
For Burnley, who might have taken a first-half lead when James Tarkowski headed against the bar, defeat came with a healthy dose of pragmatism from manager Sean Dyche.
“It’s disappointed me,” he said. “The only thing we haven’t had here is a really strong cup run and there was such a good feeling and energy among the players. I thought, let’s get through this one and see where it takes us. But in the overall scheme of things, it ’s about logic, not emotion, and the Premier League is so massive now, especially for teams like us.”