WE WILL LEARN LESSONS FROM THESE GAMES, INSISTS BOSS
LUKE Williams believes the experience of visiting a team chasing the play-offs at the business end of the season will not be lost on Swansea City next year.
Swansea maintained their fine end-of-season form with a 2-2 draw at Carrow Road on Saturday.
It was a good performance from the visitors, who had chances to take all three points in the second half.
“It was a high-level game, both teams had spells where they were dominant and had plenty of shots, and there were big chances,” said Swansea head coach Williams. “A draw was a fair result but I felt we gave a really good account of ourselves today.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to try to look at what the top six looks like and see if we can compete with that, especially away from home.
“We have a lot of positives to take from this. They are a very good team and when you see them up close you see the quality they have.
“It’s a tough place to play, it was packed and the motivation for them is so obvious.
“That’s where we want to be, we want to be playing in games of that level to try to achieve something, and this was a positive in terms of looking to the future about how we can try to move forward and perform.”
Both sides went close to scoring in a frenetic start, with a superb block from Ben Cabango denying Borja Sainz and a combination of Angus Gunn and Shane Duffy thwarting
Liam Cullen at the other end.
Swansea gave the hosts plenty to think about in the early stages and it was no big surprise when they took the lead on 24 minutes. After a careless turnover gifted them possession, Swansea worked the ball forward quickly, with Jamie Paterson using the space he found himself in to good effect by blasting the ball high into the net.
Norwich responded well and equalised in spectacular fashion. With the home defence unwisely opting to back off, Gabriel Sara was able to comfortably manoeuvre himself into a shooting position before letting fly from 25 yards and brilliant
ly finding the top corner of the net.
The Canaries were now in the driving seat and moved ahead in the third of six minutes of added time, with talented Brazilian Sara again involved.
This time it was a sumptuous assist, with a perfectly-weighted cross to the back post allowing Josh Sargent to nod home his 16th goal of the season.
The game took another turn when Swansea got were back on level terms from the penalty spot eight minutes after the restart.
Gunn was penalised for upending Ronald in the box and visiting skipper Matt Grimes stepped up to thump the ball home from the spot.
There were chances at both ends as the two sides chased a winner, with Jamal Lowe going close after a counter-attack.
“We started well, and we created a couple of chances before the goal,” added Williams.
“Then Pato (Jamie Paterson) is so difficult to play against and he got the breakthrough.
“I felt we lost a grip of the game a bit after that goal actually, but we were able to regroup and we came out again in the second half with more intensity and energy, and we made a great action for the penalty.”
Norwich head coach David Wagner
was pleased with his side’s display.
He said: “I thought that was a proper performance. Last week against Bristol City we were not happy how we played but today we were back to our normal levels.
“There was plenty of desire, hunger and intensity on show and we created lots of opportunities and the fact we were not clinical enough when we got them is the reason we didn’t get the win we deserved.
“If we need one more performance, one more result, to finish in the play-offs then I have every confidence in this group to go out and do that.