David Wagner hails Norwich response to Plymouth pummelling

Posted Sunday, October 01, 2023 by PA

Norwich head coach David Wagner was pleased to put a painful defeat behind him as his side recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over Birmingham at Carrow Road.

The Canaries went into the Championship clash on the back of a 6-2 drubbing at Plymouth last weekend, having also lost to Fulham with a much-changed team in the Carabao Cup in midweek.

Wagner was impressed with his side’s response to the setback with second-half goals from Gabriel Sara and Jonathan Rowe securing the points.

He said: “It is not a match I like talking about and it was good that we put it to bed.

“The Plymouth defeat showed what can happen when you lose your structure in a game – but I couldn’t be happier with the way we played today.

“We looked in control, we defended well and we created our moments. We scored two excellent goals and after that our game management was really good.

“There is no doubt we got what we deserved – there was a lot of focus out there, a lot of effort and most importantly of all we got the win.

“I think the players learned their lessons from the previous league game – there have been two good performances since then, at Fulham in the cup as well as today, and now it is time to look forward, with a busy spell of games coming up.”

The match was settled by two goals inside five minutes early in the second half.

Sara set the ball rolling for Norwich by heading home a Dimitris Giannoulis cross after 55 minutes and it was 2-0 just before the hour mark when Rowe burst through the middle and fired past the exposed John Ruddy.

Birmingham had their moments, with Jay Stansfield being denied by Angus Gunn just before the opening goal and Koji Miyoshi hitting the crossbar.

But they were second best on the day and have now gone five league games without a win after starting the campaign in impressive fashion.

“It’s frustrating because there have been some excellent performances in that spell,” said manager John Eustace.

“We didn’t deserve to lose at Watford and Preston and should have beaten QPR in our last home game.

“Today we were up against a top team, with top players, who will probably finish in the top two or three this season and that needs to be taken into account.

“We were perhaps a little too passive in the first half but we defended well and then created some good chances and could have gone ahead just before they scored.

“I was very disappointed with the way we defended for their two goals -it was so sloppy and not like us – and it was always tough after that.

“But overall it has been a solid start to the season, with just three defeats in nine games, and we now have two home games coming up which we are looking forward to.”