March 11th • 36/46 • 2-1 (W)
It was retro night at Carrow Road, with some banging tunes and an old school orange scoreboard and 8-bit graphics on the big screen. It was also the first time in 5 games (since Sheffield Wednesday two weeks ago) that I was at a home game and able to sit down.
The first half was slow and sloppy - they were first to nearly everything and we kept losing the ball, giving it away with misplaced passes. Following a miscommunication I think between Cordoba and McLean, we essentially headed it back down to them and they took the lead. We thought Darling and Kvistgaarden had scored but both their shots were deflected away from goal, so we went in at the break trailing in what felt like the quickest half of football I've seen in ages, it seemed to fly by.
The second half, as is often the way recently, was much improved, It was great to see Mattsson back after his injury and he made an immediate impact. We created a lot more and got one back with a bullet header from Stacey. Forson came on for Ahmed (who hadn't had a great game had had scooped a good chance way over the goal) and three minutes later curled the ball into the back of the net with a lovely first time hit after being played through by Maghoma to put us ahead, in scenes reminiscent of his heroics in that classic against Coventry last season.
Sheffield United deployed yet more time wasting tactics that seem to be plaguing the game recently, with one of their players finally getting a yellow card for it in the second half after holding up a corner and then deciding he didn't want to take it, and they couldn't have walked back across the halfway line to restart after their goal any slower if they'd tried. Chants of "take your time, take your time, Norwich City" rang out after Forson's goal, with plenty of wrist-tapping from the Barclay towards the away fans. Chris Wilder will probably find something to moan about, but maybe if he told his team to just play football instead of running the clock down, they may have got another goal.
Given the first half I'd have taken a draw, but we managed to hold out to seal the win and put us up to 15th, with a game in hand on most teams around us due to our FA Cup game at the weekend, meaning a win against Preston on Saturday will surely see us home and dry after the torrid start to the season.