Tag Archives: Norwich City

13th February 2024- Championship, Norwich City 4 Watford 2

https://www.skysports.com/football/norwich-city-vs-watford/teams/485077

WFC.Net Goal Commentary: 1  2

Sky: Norwich recovered from losing a two-goal lead to beat Watford 4-2 at Carrow Road and maintain their Championship play-off push.

BBC: The Canaries scored twice in the space of eight first-half minutes, with Ashley Barnes putting them ahead and Josh Sargent doubling their lead. Mileta Rajovic pulled a goal back shortly before half-time and Yaser Asprilla equalised with a spectacular second-half strike, only for Norwich to respond with goals from Gabriel Sara and Christian Fassnacht.

Fran’s Watford Blog: The Hornets started very poorly and looked dead and buried when Norwich scored their second.  The goal from Rajović sparked a mini-revival and the wonder goal from Asprilla was worth the price of admission on its own, but it was another poor defensive display from the Hornets that let them down and led to a scoreline that flattered the hosts and brought our unbeaten away run to an end.  We now have a run of games against teams who are below us in the table.  I hope that we see an improvement in those, or we are in for a very trying end to the season.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68212932

28th November 2023- Championship, Watford 3 Norwich City 2

https://www.skysports.com/football/watford-vs-norwich-city/teams/484911

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

Sky: Yaser Asprilla’s goal saw Watford come back from 2-0 down to beat Norwich 3-2 in an entertaining contest at Vicarage Road.

BBC: The Colombia international showed quick feet to dance the ball around Canaries goalkeeper George Long and finish to win it for the Hornets in the second half.

Watford Observer: RECAP: Watford 3 Norwich City 2

Hornets show spirit, togetherness and character to battle back and beat Canaries

Early ‘cold shower’ helped Watford clean up their act

Livermore ‘always ready to sacrifice himself on the pitch for everyone at the club’

Fran’s Watford Blog: It was a brilliant game of football.  We saw the best and the worst of this Watford team.  The failure to defend at set pieces and a fragile confidence allowed Norwich to take an early lead, which looked unsurmountable until a moment of magic from Koné gave the lads some belief.  It helped that the second Watford goal came almost immediately and from that moment it was Norwich who were struggling, although that was a result of a newfound determination in the Hornets to harry the opposition, not allowing them any space and being more careful and confident with the passing.  That resilience to come back from the two-goal deficit was very impressive and shows that this team is going in the right direction.  Koné scored a gorgeous goal and could well have had more.  He had an excellent game and is quickly becoming a favourite of mine.  But the man of the match award deservedly went to Livermore.  He was fantastic, calm and controlling the midfield.  The leadership that he shows is something that we have missed since Troy left and is a huge factor in our improved performances.

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.

Fran’s Watford Blog: Asprilla put in a wonderful performance.  In previous games, while he obviously has talent, he has looked like a boy playing against men, too often outfought as he tried to make things happen.  On this occasion, he was going on runs, jinking past players and finding team mates with some clever passes.  It was a shame that he had to go off, I hope that he is not out for long.  Gosling was excellent.  There was some scepticism when he was drafted in at right back, but he looked the part on Saturday.  So often it was his head on the end of high balls into the Watford box and the tackle to stop Sargent’s run near the end was superb.  Sarr was the Sky man of the match for a performance in which he shone.  Gone was the unmotivated sulky demeanour and back was the creative player making and taking chances.  He even joined in the lap of honour at the end with some enthusiasm. 

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.