Returning Howson and Pinto star as Norwich City secure long-awaited win

After a nightmare last few weeks Norwich City returned to winning ways in style on Saturday afternoon as they defeated Brentford 5-0 at Carrow Road. First half goals from Jacob Murphy and Graham Dorrans gave the Canaries a 2-0 lead going into the break, before Robbie Brady, Nelson Oliveira and Alex Pritchard all chipped in with second half goals to secure the much needed win for City.

In the build-up to the game I said that I expected Alex Neil to make wholesale changes and he duly obliged. Largely along the lines of what I hoped for, Jonny Howson and Ivo Pinto made their long-awaited returns to the starting eleven, whilst Alex Pritchard returned at the tip of midfield and Nelson Oliveira, replacing the injured Cameron Jerome, was given his first Carrow Road start.

Whilst I would have liked to see the return of Timm Klose at the heart of defence, Neil’s selection impressed and served to further increase my unusual confidence ahead of the game.

Upon kick-off, this optimism immediately proved justified as City began on the front-foot, boasting an air of confidence that has been missing so badly from our play since mid-October. It took just six minutes for Norwich to open the scoring as a scramble between Oliveira, a Brentford defender and Jacob Murphy resulted in the latter getting a slight touch to tap the ball home - an early goal was exactly what City needed and, equally, was just reward for their impressive start to the game. Having taken the lead, Neil’s side continued to dominate and when Harlee Dean was adjudged to have felled Murphy in the penalty area City were awarded a spot-kick. Graham Dorrans was given the duty of converting, and, despite being thwarted by Brentford’s Daniel Bentley the Scot was able to slot home on the rebound.

Despite our overwhelming dominance, Brentford still created numerous openings as our fragile, albeit slightly improving, defence continued to look vulnerable. Nonetheless, we managed to hold out and a 2-0 lead at half-time left us in a comfortable position. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have visions of a capitulation and a 3-2 loss, but there was little in the first half to suggest that it would go on to be anything other than a routine Norwich victory.

City’s third just before the hour mark ensured that any such fears of a Brentford comeback were allayed, as Pritchard played in Brady with a sublime pass, leaving the Republic of Ireland international the relatively simple task of firing past Bentley into the far left-hand corner of his goal.

It was now nothing more than a matter of how many Norwich would score and Oliveira made it four in the 80th minute as good work down the left from substitute Josh Murphy resulted in the ball being played to the Portuguese striker, who neatly manoeuvred himself space in the box before finishing impressively. Oliveira has had his critics in recent weeks - which is extremely harsh considering he has barely played - but today, with his superb link-up play and goal, he demonstrated just why we spent £5 million on him. For all of Cameron Jerome’s strengths, there is no doubting that Oliveira is the better ‘footballer’ of the two (technically, anyway) and we can only hope that today’s performance will have earned him an elongated spell in the team.

The performance and result was capped off perfectly by a goal for Alex Pritchard in the closing stages, as he poked home a Josh Murphy cross. Pritchard is another one who has been unfairly treated by Neil this season and performances like today make it all the more baffling: the man is a magician. Whisper it quietly, but I would argue that he is a more athletic, less wasteful and arguably cleverer version of Wes Hoolahan and the latter is going to have his work cut out to try and oust Pritchard from his newly-claimed central position.

It is no secret that our downturn in form largely coincided with the injuries to both Ivo Pinto and Jonny Howson and similarly it is no surprise that upon their return we suddenly look a much, much better side. Pinto was effectively playing as a right winger this afternoon and at time his pace was completely devastating - he gives us a completely different dimension going forward and without him a huge amount of our offensive threat is nullified. Howson, as ever, was brilliant and demonstrated just why many City fans view him as our best and most important player. Whether it be through his breaking up of play, his marauding runs forward or his immaculate passing ability, our midfield improves ten-fold with him at the centre of it. Keeping him fit for the rest of the season is an absolute necessity.

So, where does this leave Alex Neil? It would be extremely fickle to act like everything is rosy again - one victory (against a below average Brentford side) does not make up for the five defeats previous, but it is something. If we can use today as a starting point to build momentum and go on a winning run then maybe there is still a future for Neil. A defeat at Barnsley next weekend, however, and we are back to square one.