Heartbreak at St James’ Park as Norwich concede twice in stoppage time to lose 4-3

Late drama at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening saw Norwich City throw away a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 in a defeat which threatens to have a long-lasting impact. Goals from Graham Dorrans, Cameron Jerome and Jacob Murphy left City leading in the 95th minute, before two goals in the space of the final minute left Norwich desolate and pointless, and cost them the opportunity to return to the top of the Championship.

As soon as the starting line-up was revealed annoucning the inclusion of Sebastien Bassong and Russell Martin at centre-back, and more importantly the omission of Timm Klose, alarm bells started to ring. More often than not the involvement of the former two as a centre-back pairing ends in disaster and there is no surprise that Wednesday evening eventually transpired to be no different. There has been claims from Norwich supporters that Ryan Bennett should have been given the nod over Bassong but the fact is that all three of them are as hopeless as each other - the introduction of Bennett as a third centre-back to try and help us hold onto the lead certainly did not help, anyway.

It is an undeniable fact that, despite being top, Norwich have not been at their best this season, with results too often papering over the cracks of some largely lacklustre displays. You couldn’t help but feel that Wednesday’s game would give us a fairer reflection of our abilities, as the fixture list for our opening nine games was relatively kind and the trip to Newcastle represented our first daunting test.

With this in mind, the performance was concerning. Whilst losing 4-3, having been winning with seconds to go, suggests that we deserved more, anyone who watched the game would accept that Newcastle were worthy victors. But for some poor finishing, protection from the woodwork and Michael McGovern in the City net, Newcastle could have been 4-0 up within twenty minutes - and that is not an over-reaction. The dropping of Wes Hoolahan in favour of Alex Tettey gave the side a negative outlook from the off and thus it is no surprise that the vast majority of the ninety minutes were spent with Rafa Benitez’s men on the front foot - it goes without saying that structuring a game-plan around your defence when said defenders are incapable of defending, is not the wisest move.

So - where to begin? When Norwich concede it is rarely just one individual error but rather a whole embarrassing catalogue of errors and Dwight Gayle’s opener on Wednesday evening was no different. Robbie Brady’s failure to track-back allowed Newcastle to double-up on, and easily get past, Martin Olsson before Sebastien Bassong failed to cut-out Matt Ritchie’s cross leaving Dwight Gayle - who Russell Martin had failed to pick up - to fire home. Just the three individual errors in this one, then.

The goal was no less than Newcastle deserved and having performed so haplessly in the opening 25-minutes, I fully expected the floodgates to now open. Despite relentless Newcastle pressure, thankfully this didn’t transpire and somewhat miraculously we went into half-time level. Graham Dorrans continued his fine form by finding Robbie Brady with a brilliant lofted pass before converting home the penalty that followed the aforementioned Brady being felled.

There was hope that this late goal would spur us on to deliver a more confident second half display and such hopes were soon met as within seven minutes of the restart Cameron Jerome fired City into the lead. Neat work from Jacob Murphy down the right resulted in him crossing the ball into Jerome before the striker, who is so often criticised for his finishing ability, beautifully curled his shot home past Karl Darlow in the Newcastle net. City were now in front and the smash and grab of all smash and grab’s looked set to be on the cards - even more so when Murphy extended the lead in the 68th minute. As with his goal against Burton, he was aided by a fortuitous deflection but it was his aggressive, direct dribbling which presented him in the situation to score and, once more, the 21-year-old had forged his own luck.

Just as I was beginning to relax and celebrate the fact that we now had breathing space, Sebastien Bassong had other ideas. Little over two minutes after Murphy’s strike and Newcastle were back in it, as Bassong failed to deal with a long ball over the top, leaving Gayle to latch onto it and skilfully slot home. With twenty minutes left, only one outcome seemed inevitable. Nonetheless, we somehow managed to wave the Toon storm for over twenty minutes and with five of the 6 additional minutes having been played, the points were surely all but ours. We would go top of the league and in doing so extended our winning streak to six….

Not if Ryan Bennett and, of course, Bassong, had anything to say about it. The latter felt that the 95th minute was a good time to sit on his rear and admire the building Newcastle attack, whilst the former - a 79th minute substitute - stood and watched as Gouffran, just yards away from him, headed home. As if that wasn’t quite enough, Norwich decided to go full Norwich by conceding again. Ryan Bennett was beaten in the air following Shelvey’s long ball, before Gayle got past a timid Alex Tettey challenge and beat a weak Michael McGovern’s left arm.

Even 24 hours on, it really is quite difficult to accept: only Norwich could be winning in the 95th minute and still manage to lose the game. The most important thing now is how we react. Last time we suffered a similarly gut-wrenching defeat, to Liverpool last January, we went on a torrid run of form and ended up being relegated. We simply cannot afford this defeat to have such an impact this time around. Unlike the Liverpool defeat, when we had to wait two weeks to play again, we visit Wolves in three days time with the perfect opportunity to put things right. Win there, and in doing so strengthen our place in the top two, and all will be forgotten.