Norwich City 2-0 Bolton Wanderers.
Norwich City cruised to their fifth home league win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory over struggling Bolton with goals from Andrew Surman and Anthony Pilkington lifting the home side up to 9th in the table. Bolton, in contrast, fell into the relegation zone after Wolves came back from being 1-0 down at QPR to win 2-1.
After a disappointing performance and loss against Sunderland in midweek, Norwich didn’t let the poor result affect them in front of the packed Carrow Road. Bolton on the other hand had enjoyed a recent run of form with a draw against Arsenal and comfortable wins over Swansea and Liverpool but at no point did they really look like continuing their success with the Norwich keeper rarely threatened.
Norwich started the game with plenty of pressure on the Bolton goal with Simeon Jackson looking sharp causing the Bolton defence problems throughout.
Norwich however had problems themselves early on in defence being forced into replacing centre back Daniel Ayala with Russell Martin.
Andrew Surman had an easy chance to put the Yellows in front with a right footed shot from 6 yards, only to hit the bar after Grant Holt selflessly putting it on a plate for the left winger.
The Canaries defence took a further blow when back Zak Whitbread went down which meant Norwich had to reshuffle their back line again with Kyle Naughton forming a new centre back partnership with Martin with Elliott Bennett coming on in a rather unfamiliar position at right back.
John Ruddy made his first save in the 55th minute with a shot from the quiet ex Liverpool striker Ngog. He was shortly called into action again with a Petrov corner nearly sneaking in at the near post with Chris Eagles rushing in.
In the 56th minute, Owen Coyle then made a positive substitution replacing Fabrice Muamba with Kevin Davies – who has seen his chances limited this season and has a point to prove.
This made little difference as Norwich took the lead through Andrew Surman making up for his miss earlier in the game volleying a rebounded shot in the 70th minute after Jackson’s hard work paying off.
Steve Morison replaced Jackson shortly after, giving the Canadian a well deserved rest after a great performance up front.
Late on, Grant Holt unfamiliarly missed a sitter from inside the 6 yard box slicing an inch perfect ball from Anthony Pilkington over the bar.
Shorty after, the Canaries doubled their lead and put the game to bed in the 85th minute through the lively Pilkington who took advantage of a spill by Bogdan who couldn’t hold on to a powerful shot by Russell Martin with the Norwich number 12 slotting the ball home.
Bolton never really got into the game and didn’t take advantage of the home sides reshuffled defence giving Ruddy an easy afternoon.
Norwich face fellow promotion winners Swasea at the Liberty Stadium which shapes up to be an exciting encounter with both sides impressing in the Premiership. The last fixture finished 3-1 to Norwich but the Swans are a much improved side since the comfortable Norwich win back in October.
Bolton host a Wigan side that have lost their last three away games in all competitions, who along with Bolton are fighting for their lives at the foot of the table.
MOM: Simeon Jackson.
Written by James Cossey - @JCossey7 on twitter.
