Farke lauds “massive win” for Norwich against Bristol City

Norwich manager Daniel Farke hailed a big win for his side after they beat Bristol City 3-2 at Carrow Road to maintain their two-point advantage at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.

Kenny McLean’s first goals for the club steered the Canaries to a hard-fought victory against a Robins side who had gone into the game with seven straight league wins behind them and were twice in front.

Jamie Paterson fired the Robins into a 12th minute lead and, after McLean had equalised on 36 minutes with a cool finish, Callum O’Dowda immediately restored the visitors’ advantage with a fine individual effort.

But the Canaries didn’t panic and defender Ben Godfrey converted a Max Aarons cross to restore parity 10 minutes after the restart before McLean had the final say with a low 25-yarder in the 66th minute.

Farke said: “Because of the story of the game this feels like a massive win for us. We were playing against an in-form side, who were full of confidence, and yet we have twice come back from behind to take all three points.

“I am really proud of my lads. It was tough in the first half but in the second half they were outstanding. We had 16 shots at goal and I can’t remember them having one at all. In the end I think we got what we deserved.

“It is an important win because it was against a side who could be one of our rivals and now we have a put a bit more distance between them and Derby in seventh. Now it is looking very good for the play-offs at least because there is a large gap there.”

Farke paid tribute to two-goal hero McLean, even though he was at fault for Bristol City’s second goal, which came just after he had equalised.

He added: “It wasn’t an easy decision on whether to start with Kenny but in the end it was the right one. We had Mario Vrancic and Moritz Leitner available again but I felt Kenny played well at Bolton last week and deserved another chance.

“After picking up a big injury early in the season he has had to be patient but he has worked hard in training to get his chance and it is good that he has taken it. There is still room for improvement in his game as you saw with the second Bristol goal, but it was a great goal to win the game.”

Bristol City boss Lee Johnson received a yellow card after the game for confronting referee Gavin Ward, with a fourth booking of the season meaning he is likely to be watching his side’s next game from the stands.

He said: “I wasn’t happy with the referee’s performance and told him so. I didn’t use any bad language but kept chipping away and I think that is why I got a yellow card. I just thought he was too inconsistent.

“In my mind you should manage the game on the actions on the pitch. Whether the foul is in the box, on the halfway line or on the moon it should be treated the same way and I don’t think he did that. I also think we should have had a penalty in the first half but he didn’t give it.”

As for the game itself, Johnson added: “I thought we were the better side in the first half and deserved to be ahead. But in the first 25 minutes of the second half Norwich blew us away with their quality.

“The most disappointing thing is we were unable to counter that. Norwich are flying at the moment, they have bundles of energy and a lot of good technical players but we should have dealt with it better, especially after twice going ahead.”