Howson's genius, the emergence of Josh Murphy and fortress Carrow Road: 3 things we learned from Norwich City's thrashing of Forest

Norwich City continued their recent resurgence on Saturday afternoon as they dismantled Nottingham Forest 5-1 at Carrow Road. The win makes it 6 home wins out of the last 7 for Alex Neil’s side, who appear to be building momentum at the perfect time and now sit within just two points of Sheffield Wednesday in 6th and four points off a stuttering Leeds United in 5th. So, most Norwich fans are beginning to accept that, after a torrid spell, Neil has managed to turn thing around – but what else can we take from Saturday’s thrashing of Forest?

The world is Jonny Howson’s; we are merely living in it

Tony Yeboah, Paul Scholes & Paolo di Canio please move aside, for Jonny Howson is the newly-crowned volley King. What a goal. He has scored some stunners during his time at Norwich – the solo goal at Man City and half-volley at Stoke immediately spring to mind – but yesterday’s opener was on a different level. Wes Hoolahan’s corner was cleared with a looping header which, falling from a great height, landed at the waist of Howson 20 yards out. The ex-Leeds man, who has scored in his last 6 outings against Forest, re-adjusted his body perfectly before lashing the ball into the top right-hand corner of the Forest goal. For some, merely controlling the falling ball from such a height would have been impressive, but to shoot, connect so well, hit the target and score requires an unbelievable amount of skill.

For the majority of neutrals, seeing Howson demonstrate such skill will come as a surprise. For Norwich fans, however, it is no shock – whilst he has never before quite matched the level of Saturday’s strike, we have seen him demonstrate his immense talents on a weekly basis for the past four seasons. The only thing that does constantly surprise us is just how under-the-radar he is; the likes of Robbie Brady are the subject of £13 million sales whilst Howson, the far superior all-round player, doesn’t even garner an interest. Long may it continue!

Step aside Jacob, it is now Josh’s turn to shine

At the beginning of the season, the majority of Norwich fans felt that if one of the Murphy twins was going to make an impact in the first team this season then it would most likely have been Josh. Whilst Jacob had spent last season at League One Coventry, Josh had enjoyed the experience of a season’s worth of Championship football at MK Dons and, as a result, it was believed that he would be more suited to make an immediate impact in the City first team. As it transpired, however, it was Jacob who would prove to be the superior twin having never looked back since scoring City’s first goal of the season back at Blackburn in August.

Nonetheless, his impact has been wavering in recent weeks – such a drop in form is inevitable for a young winger – and this gave Josh the opportunity to make a rare start on Saturday. His display proved that he is not content to simply live in the shadow of his twin and within minutes he was taking the game to Forest, making left back Daniel Pinillos’ life a misery down the right hand side. It was Pinillos again that he managed to escape when he doubled City’s lead in the 17th minute as he latched on to Wes Hoolahan’s through ball to finish confidently past Henderson. It was the sort of chance that he would have spurned when he first broke into the side two seasons ago and the composure with which he finished illustrates his significant development. Jacob’s relentless form has starved Josh of game-time so far this campaign but after Saturday’s performance the place is now his to lose – such competition can surely only be positive.

Carrow Road is rapidly developing into a fortress

As previously mentioned, Saturday’s result now takes City to 6 wins out of 7 Carrow Road, during which we have scored 19 goals. Even during our torrid spell of form leading up to Christmas, our performances on home turf maintained a certain degree of consistency and this contributed hugely to us boasting the 3rd best home record in the division. Out of our 15 games at home this season we have won a hugely impressive 11 and, whilst our away form still leaves much to be desired, we are capable of brushing aside almost anyone at home. Tuesday evening represents the hardest test of the season so far, the visit of leaders Newcastle, but we should be confident. Win that, and there will be no denying that Carrow Road is officially a fortress – a fortress that will help take us a long way to reaching the play-offs.