Sammie Szmodics bags brace as Norwich woes continue in loss to 10-man Blackburn

Posted Sunday, November 05, 2023 by PA

Norwich’s slump continued as they fell to a painful 3-1 defeat at the hands of 10-man Blackburn at Carrow Road.

The Canaries have now lost eight times in 10 games in all competitions, slipping to 17th in the Championship, and there were calls for head coach David Wagner to go during another below-par showing.

Blackburn scored twice in the opening 15 minutes through Tyrhys Dolan and Sammie Szmodics to take control, and a second from Szmodics early in the second half ended the game as a contest, even through Rovers’ Scott Wharton was sent off shortly afterwards.

Norwich got one back in injury time through Gabriel Sara, but it was no more than a consolation for the struggling hosts.

The Canaries were well off the pace in the early stages and were duly punished as the visitors scored two well-taken goals.

At times a slick Rovers side were able to play their way through a nervous looking City backline at will and it was no surprise when they took the lead after eight minutes with a goal of classic simplicity.

Joe Rankin-Costello found himself in some space on the right and slid the ball infield to Dolan who burst into the box before producing an emphatic finish into the roof of the net.

It got worse for the hosts in the 15th minute when Rovers added a second. Their defence was again caught square as Andrew Moran put Szmodics in and the striker buried an unstoppable low shot into the bottom corner to make it two.

There were chants of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ from the Norwich fans when that one went in, with head coach Wagner already under pressure after his side’s poor run of form.

The Canaries did improve as the half wore on, and Ui Jo Hwang and Marcelino Nunez both got decent efforts of target before Onel Hernandez fired just wide from the edge of the area after being fed by Jack Stacey.

But overall it was still a poor first-half showing, and the second started in similar fashion for the Canaries as they shipped another soft goal four minutes after the restart.

This time Dolan had all the time in the world to clip a ball out to an unmarked Moran on the right and crossed low for Szmodics to tap in at the far post, with the Rovers top scorer getting the benefit of a tight offside call.

Norwich desperately needed a boost at that point and got one a few minutes later when Wharton was red-carded after bringing down Hernandez as the Cuban raced through on goal, although the subsequent free-kick from Nunez was comfortably gathered by Leopold Wahlstedt.

Wagner made a quadruple substitution on the hour mark in an attempt to change the course of the game and one of them, Christian Fassnacht, brought an excellent reaction save out of the Rovers keeper with a powerful back-post header.

Norwich were now firmly on the front foot, with Nunez blasting just wide and Sara seeing a goal-bound shot well blocked and they finally reduced the arrears in the second minute of injury time.

Wahlstedt could only parry a low cross from Przemyslaw Placheta and it fell nicely for Sara to side-foot home from just outside the six-yard box.