Impressive Norwich go second as they make it three wins in a week

Norwich City made it three wins in a week on Saturday afternoon as they came back from a goal down to win 2-1 against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Goals from the central-midfield pairing, Jonny Howson and Graham Dorrans, inflicted Forest’s first home defeat of the season and secured an impressive win for City. Alex Neil’s side now move up to second in the Championship table, just two points off leaders Huddersfield, and the pessimism that was shared by some supporters just over a week ago has transformed almost entirely into enthusiastic optimism.

Going into the game the absence of Alex Tettey was a concern. Tettey picked up an injury during Tuesday’s win over Wigan and his consequential withdrawal from the side at half-time left City horribly exposed. Against a stronger Forest side, who before Saturday had scored fifteen goals in their opening seven games, I felt that the protection of our defence offered by Tettey would be important. Nonetheless, Tettey was unfit for selection and as a result, Alex Neil - rather than going for the like-for-like alternative of Youssouf Mulumbu - went for the more offensive option of pairing Graham Dorrans and Jonny Howson together in the middle of the park. Far too often Howson is pushed out-wide where he is wasted, so it was nice to see him being given an opportunity to play in his most natural position. Unsurprisingly, he went on to give what was arguably his best performance of the season so far. A performance that, incidentally, was only to be bettered by his midfield partner, Dorrans. The Scot’s defensive ability is often overlooked and he is very rarely favoured by Neil to play the anchor role - yesterday, however, he was dominant. This dominance is demonstrated perfectly by the fact that he made as many interceptions (6) as the entire Nottingham Forest midfield. Despite flashes of brilliance, and some strong individual performances, Dorrans has yet to completely make his mark at the club but I feel that his talents are often under-rated. He is a clever footballer and extremely useful asset to have, especially at Championship level. Not many players in this league would have been able to fire home quite so easily as Dorrans did to give City the lead yesterday afternoon. Keeping him fit is hugely important.

Despite beating both Cardiff and Wigan in the build-up to the trip to Forest, there was still some doubt about our performance levels and our ability to obtain similar results against stronger outfits. Saturday’s win, however, has gone some way to erasing such doubt. Without being brilliant, the first-half was one of City dominance and Vellios’ opener immediately following Wes Hoolahan’s penalty miss was a cruel blow. The game was being played at City’s pace and our midfield were running the game. To have performed like this and yet go into the break trailing would have been hugely damaging to our confidence and thus, to bounce-back from this and produce the performance that we did in the second half yesterday shows immense character. The sort of character that defines promotion contenders.

If City could be described as dominant in the first half, then the second half was even more one-sided. It really was Norwich at their very best. The aforementioned Howson and Dorrans were winning absolutely every tackle and interception and were dictating play in the centre of the park, whilst Jacob Murphy, clearly brimming with confidence, was beating Danny Fox at every opportunity. Robbie Brady, finally being played in his far stronger position in left-midfield, was somewhat closer to being at his best and completed a four-man midfield - behind the ever-imperious Wes Hoolahan at the tip - that Forest had no answer for. City flooded forward in attack after attack and wave after wave of pressure throughout almost the whole second half and perhaps the only complaint is that we only scored two. Cameron Jerome, leading the line, put in a typically workman-like performance but could be criticised for not gambling upon a couple of tempting shot-come-crosses that were driven tantalisingly across the Forest six-yard box.

Having got in front it felt inevitable that Forest would soon begin to pile on the pressure, but such was our dominance that this never really transpired. Despite a couple of shaky moments at the back, even going into injury time the team looking likelier to score was always Norwich.

Three wins in three marks a huge shift in momentum in City’s favour and with another set of three games in a week to come, it has come at the perfect time. After Tuesday’s League Cup tie at Everton, Norwich have the distinctly winnable visit of Burton Albion to Carrow Road. Of course, no game is easy but if we play anywhere the level that we did in the second half at the City Ground on Saturday then I have no doubt that Burton, like Forest, will have no answer. Win that, and all will look rosy going into our early promotion-clash against Newcastle on the following Saturday - traveling to St James’ Park in the top two will provide us with a huge boost of confidence.