Norwich beat Burton to go top and secure fifth consecutive win

Norwich City’s fine run of form continued on Saturday afternoon as they beat newly-promoted Burton Albion 3-1 at Carrow Road. Another goal for Jacob Murphy and a first professional goal for right-back Ivo Pinto secured the win for City after fellow full-back Martin Olsson put them into a first half lead. The win sees Norwich go to the top of the Championship table with the mouth-watering prospect of a trip to promotion favourites Newcastle to come on Wednesday night.

Having won four games in a row and with everything looking rosy, the visit of Championship minnows Burton appeared to present itself as a huge potential banana skin. In comparison to City, the resources of Burton - who we were playing for the first time ever on Saturday - are minuscule and, thus, naturally we should be expected to win. Usually, however, this is exactly the sort of game that sees us slip-up and it would have been typical of Norwich to come out of tricky away trips to Nottingham Forest and Everton with two victories only to lose to Burton on home turf. Thankfully, despite a valiant challenge from Nigel Clough’s side, this wasn’t to be the case as City went on to put another crucial three points on the board.

Predicting Alex Neil’s starting eleven for a coming fixture is usually an impossible task but for once, this weekend, it seemed obvious. The victory at Forest saw us deliver an impressive result with a performance to match and, as a result, any unenforced changes to the line-up that featured that day would have been nothing more than unnecessary tinkering. This time, even Neil couldn’t justify making any changes and we went into the game with the same eleven.

The victory at Forest was a slight anomaly in that we won as a result of us performing largely at our best - the two previous wins over Wigan and Cardiff coming whilst playing in second gear. Unfortunately, for the health of City supporters, Saturday’s performance was more similar to the latter two home games in that, for large spells, we were not at our best - something that was accepted by both Alex Neil and Ivo Pinto in their respective post-match interviews.

Burton demonstrated the tenacity and spirit that has gone a long way to getting them to Championship level - playing a high-pressing game that harried the City defence and midfield and resulted in a rather disjointed opening. Regardless of form or opposition the Norwich defence is almost always vulnerable and this proved to be the case once more on Saturday. Timm Klose, who perhaps hasn’t been quite as dominant this season as some City fans may have expected, looked shaky all afternoon and this resulted in the Burton offensive threat never quite going away.

Despite the lacklustre start, City took the lead in the 30th minute when Martin Olsson ran onto a smart Graham Dorrans pass and stylishly slammed home from inside the box. It was a moment of class from Dorrans who, on the back of such an impressive performance at Forest last weekend, is looking like an increasingly important player. The performance thus far, and then up to half-time had not been overly satisfying however, and fears that we would soon be punished were proven true as Burton hit back just seconds after the restart. The win over Cardiff saw us concede two unbelievably soft goals and Burton’s equaliser was even worse as numerous failed attempts to clear allowed Lucas Akins to prod home after a hopeless goal-line scramble. At this stage, Norwich fans would have been forgiven for fearing the worst but such fears could have lasted little over sixty seconds as man-of-the-moment Jacob Murphy responded to give City the lead almost immediately. Whilst the 21-year-old’s strike was aided by a deflection, it was just reward for his attacking instinct and direct play - he is always thinking positively and trying to make things happen and with such an attitude such slices of luck are inevitable.

It was hoped that this set-back for Burton would kill their confidence, allowing City to go on to extend their lead and secure victory. Whilst this did eventually happen, Burton, even when down to ten men following Flanagan’s dismissal, continued to cause problems. It was not until the 90th minute, when Pinto drove into the Burton box and fired home from a tight angle, that the three points finally felt safe.

So, it is a fifth win in a row for Norwich and yet another victory despite not playing at our best. You can’t help but feel that if we are to get anything from the trip to Newcastle on Wednesday night then our performance level will have to be far higher than what has been displayed in our last three home games, but on our current run of form it is difficult to complain.

We currently sit top of the league but I am shying clear of getting carried away - if we are still there come this time next week, however, having come out of tricky trips to Newcastle and Wolves unscathed, then there is nothing stopping me.