Tag Archives: Norwich City

2nd January 2023- Championship, Norwich City 0 Watford 1

WFC.Net goal commentary: 1

Attendance: 26,587

BBC Sport: Vakoun Bayo’s late breakaway goal earned victory for Watford and left managerless Norwich City pondering a dismal home run which has now seen them win just once in nine Championship matches at Carrow Road.

Sky Sports: A careless loss of possession in midfield proved fatal for the hosts as Sarr broke clear on the left before squaring for the unmarked Bayo to sidefoot home from inside the six-yard box.

BHappy: This is far from a perfect performance.  But by god it’s inspiring stuff, as if we’ve saved up three games’ worth of bloody-mindedness and spent all our chips on a big blow out in Norfolk.  The game itself is wide open, frantic and breathless;  as such it suits down to the ground certain players who might have been exposed in a tighter encounter where one mistake might make the difference.

Fran’s Watford blog: The home side had a great chance to equalise with a shot from Nuñez that was deflected just wide.  Then, from a corner, Pukki had a shot that was just wide of the target.  Having scored so late, we didn’t think that we would have too long to hang on until the fourth official indicated that there was 9 minutes of added time.  Norwich had a great chance to salvage a point when Sara won a free-kick in a dangerous position.  He took it himself and his effort was close, bouncing off the far post.  The final whistle went to much merriment in the away end.  After the last couple of games, it was so lovely seeing the players celebrating with beaming smiles and shirts being thrown into the crowd.

15th October 2022- Championship, Watford 2 Norwich City 1

WFC.net goal commentary: 1  2

Attendance: 19,400

BBC Sport: Imran Louza and Keinan Davis scored for Watford as the Hornets bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Norwich City and move back within two points of the Championship play-off places.

Sky Sports: Josh Sargent then pulled one back for Norwich, but they could not get level as they missed the chance to go top of the table. They drop to third after Burnley won earlier in the day to move above them and Sheffield United to the summit.

BHappy: There are (to varying degrees) nascent partnerships all over the pitch.  Gosling and Sema, our unlikely right flank.  Louza and Asprilla.  Sarr and Kamara, who spends the evening bounding forward like an excited puppy in a manner that Isma might find familiar.  Their first link up sees Kamara dink a pass over two opponents to where Sarr has skipped unnoticed;  young midfield Liam Gibbs is panicked into grabbing an arm and Sarr’s momentum does the rest. Good to see goal machine Louza, having so gloriously if inconsequentially broken his duck at Bloomfield Road, grabbing the ball in JP’s absence.  Not so good to see Gunn save well as the Moroccan international struck the spot kick firmly yet eminently saveably to the keeper’s left but hugely heartening that we didn’t miss a beat – to the extent that City fans’ celebrations at their let-off were quickly dampened by the aggression with which we chased down and regained possession after the spot kick, albeit to no immediate benefit.

21st January 2022- Premier League, Watford 0 Norwich City 3

Watford Observer: Moussa Sissoko has issued a rallying cry to Watford supporters ahead of this evening’s game against Norwich City.

Attendance: 20,782

BBC Sport: Josh Sargent’s first Premier League goals capped a “crazy couple of weeks” as the new father helped Norwich City to a crucial victory over 10-man Watford which moved them out of the relegation zone for the first time this season.

Sky Sports: Watford manager Claudio Ranieri was in need of a spark, but there would be an 11-minute stoppage due to floodlight failure to further frustrate the hosts’ attempts to respond. After the lengthy stoppage, it was Norwich who doubled their lead as Sargent rose above Hassane Kamara to give the Canaries daylight (74).

BHappy: There was an edginess about the atmosphere at Vicarage Road, not abetted by the fact that plenty will have planned to arrive in plenty of time for a 7.45 kick off and instead arrived very early for 8 (and the magnificent GT scarf display which Norwich, oddly given the cold, were the first visitors on such an occasion not to really join in with).  But expectation too (yes, extraordinary).  We’re not very good at that really, traditionally, winning when we’re expected to but we’ve done well enough against the Canaries in recent years and reports from Norfolk suggested that the eye-catching win over Everton wasn’t borne of some great about-turn in form on Norwich’s part.  They were still pretty awful.  Nonetheless, as the flares warmed our cheeks and the fireworks went off and the yellow smoke dissipated (all of which adornment feels rather desperate in hindsight, though it would of course been a glorious opener to a fine evening if we had won) we were all hoping for an early goal to settle the nerves.

Fran’s Watford Blog: So, half-way through the season and we have dropped into the relegation zone for the first time. We have been on a downward trajectory for some time, despite some decent performances against the better teams, which makes it very hard to see us recovering from this.  The frustrating thing is that we have the talent in the team, but there didn’t appear to be enough fight today.  It has to be said that each of the Norwich goals came from individual mistakes and there was a horrible irony in the fact that Norwich only had two shots on target but scored three goals.  To survive at this level, we have to cut out the mistakes and start getting results against the poorer teams in the division.  We seem to be incapable of doing that.

18th September 2021- Premier League, Norwich City 1 Watford 3

WFC.Net Jon Mark’s Goal Commentary: 1 2 3

Attendance: 26,649

BBC Sport: Ismaila Sarr scored twice as Watford beat Norwich in the battle of the two promoted sides and Premier League relegation rivals – to leave Norwich bottom on no points.

Sky Sports: Teemu Pukki cancelled out Emmanuel Dennis’ opener in the first half, but Ismaila Sarr sealed Watford’s second Premier League win of the season with a close-range finish shortly after the hour mark and another in the 82nd minute.

BHappy: Our recent performances have been characterised by an ability to hold opponents off whilst ceding possession, undermined by an inability to capitalise when we break.  Today, subtle changes in team selection and attitude facilitate almost a complete inverse.  That “tight and nervy” prediction is blown out of the water immediately as both sides start positively and aggressively.  Off the pitch, in the circumstances we may benefit from being the away side;  a travelling support in general, let alone on a sunny afternoon in late summer, generally boasts less angst and more bloody-mindedness than a home support, all other things being equal.  This is only fuelled by an early assault on the City goal, adjacent to the away block in the first half, which culminates in Kucka hurling himself like a human missile at a right wing cross.  His opponent holds him off on this occasion, which takes some doing, but this is fuel to the boisterous fire kindling in the away end.  The flipside of this is that having looked generally difficult to manoeuvre through up until now we’re ceding chances a little too easily in what little foothold we afford the home side.  This will not be dull.

From the Rookery End: Join Mike and DCW as they share their thoughts and experiences throughout the day, hearing from fellow supporters as the travelling Hornets hordes enjoyed a day in the Norfolk sun.

20th April 2021- Championship, Norwich City 0 Watford 1

BBC Sport: Watford moved a step closer to an immediate return to the Premier League with victory at already promoted Norwich City.

Sky Sports: An attack down the right saw the ball reach Joao Pedro just inside the box and the striker did well to pick out an unmarked Gosling, who had no trouble side-footing home at the back post.

BHappy: We deserve promotion this season.  We haven’t gotten away with anything, if and when it’s confirmed we’ll have earned it (hellooooo again Spurs).  At the start of the season we were solid… less than the sum of our parts, perhaps, frustrating at times but often effective despite that, and effective enough to hang around at the top of the table.  To be in position to capitalise if and when we found some form.  When we did find that form we looked occasionally flamboyant, often cruelly, mercilessly irresistible – twenty clean sheets before today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56727798

26th December 2020- Championship, Watford 1 Norwich City 0

BBC Sport: Ismaila Sarr got new Watford head coach Xisco Munoz off to the perfect start with a winning goal that ended Championship leaders Norwich City’s five-game winning run.

Sky Sports: Just a few minutes before the break, Watford took advantage. Ken Sema darted to the left-hand byline and pulled the ball back across the face of goal to the far post, where Sarr timed his run to perfection, sneaked past Jacob Sorensen and tucked the opener past stranded Norwich goalkeeper Michael McGovern.

Official site: City pressed but never had that golden chance and Foster wasn’t overly-extended in the Watford goal.

BHappy: Xisco Muñoz hits the right notes straight away, even if he does come across a bit Joey Tribbiani.  Positive, energetic. likeable.  Watford supporters should long since be immune to What Other People Think, in particular that sort of guffawing sub-pub bore nonsense churned out by Chris Sutton on 5 Live.  There are concerns in his lack of managerial experience of course, but then the likes of Boothroyd and Rodgers came in with comparable experience and both did alright for themselves with us and elsewhere, in different ways.  It’s unlikely that the Pozzos picked his name out of a hat after all.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55373502