Norwich 3 Exeter 1
It may not have been the most convincing performance, but a goal in
each half from Grant Holt and a Chris Martin effort were enough to secure
the all-important three points.
December’s Coca-Cola League One Manager of the Month, Paul Lambert,
had the luxury of naming an unchanged starting line-up from the side that
won at Wycombe last week.
He only made two changes to the bench, with fit-again Declan Rudd
replacing Academy keeper Jed Steer and one of his two new signings,
striker Oli Johnson, taking Josh Dawkin’s seat. Johnson made quite
an impression on his brief debut, causing the opposition plenty of
problems after replacing Wes Hoolahan in the 83rd minute.
Meanwhile, Exeter, having taken 12 hours on Friday to reach Norfolk,
must have been pleased that the game was one of only two in League
One to survive the artic weather, especially as they had not played for
nearly two weeks, because their scheduled game at home to Carlisle
last week was postponed due to the Cumbrians' FA Cup tie away at
Everton.
Paul Tisdale made two changes to the side that drew at home to
Gillingham. Ex-Ipswich striker Marcus Stewart and James Dunne were
relegated to the bench, to be replaced by Stuart Fleetwood (on loan from
Charlton) and Alex Russell respectively.
It was the visitors, in their red-striped shirts who kicked off
towards the Barclay end, to the right of which were housed a
surprisingly large contingent of their fans.
However, it did not take the Canaries long to assert their authority on
the game, taking an 8th minute lead through their Captain, Grant Holt.
It was created by December’s Player of the Month, Wes Hoolahan,
who floated in a delightful ball from the right and City’s leading scorer
stole in behind Richard Duffy at the farpost to beat the offside trap
and keeper, Paul Jones, with a well placed header from close range.
Amid claims of handball from the City fans in the build up from Scott
Golbourne, Stuart Fleetwood was put in behind the Canary defence and
only had Fraser Foster to beat. But the City keeper bravely slid out to
block the ball with his body.
In the 27th minute, a fast sweeping move saw Hoolahan’s long cross-
field ball find an unmarked Holt on the left. He should really have
doubled his goal-tally after cutting into the area, but rather than
shoot, he checked and cut the ball back to Lappin, whose shot
ballooned up off a defender into the grateful arms of Jones.
The Exeter keeper kept his side in the game in the 36th minute when
he dived at full stretch to claim Nelson’s bullet header, from Lappin’s
corner.
Jones then pushed Drury’s shot over for a corner in the 38th minute.
Although the home side could not create an opening from the first
corner, they did from the resulting second corner. And it was central
defender Nelson again, whose header was only inches overthe crossbar.
However, Exeter were not lying down and twice within a minute they
came very close to equalising. First Forster produced a wonderful one-
handed reflex save to deny Alex Russell’s downward header, then Russell
Martin cleared off the line from Tully’s shot.
With three minutes left of the half, Darel Russell held the ball up
well in the middle of Exeter’s half before spotting the run of Lappin
in behind the defence. Unfortunately his first time header wasn’t
powerful enough to beat Jones.
HALF-TIME: City 1 Exeter 0
The Canaries started the second half with more urgency, no doubt
spurred on by a half-time pep talk from their manager.
An early left-wing cross from Drury was met by the in-rushing Smith,
but the Academy graduate could only put his header over the bar.
Chris Martin, missed a chance when his second touch was just too strong,
then, after 53minutes, Jones pulled off a finger-tip save to deny him .
With City failing to completely dominate the game, the Exeter boss
must have sensed there might have been a chance for his side to get back
into the game and he brought on all three of his subs!
Stewart replaced Fleetwood up front, with Liam Sercombe taking Alex
Russell’s midfield place and another ex-Ipswich player, Richard Logan,
replacing the ineffective Adam Stansfield.
Within two minutes Sercombe put in a shot, with the outside of his right
boot, just wide of Forster’s right hand upright. Then it was Sercombe
again, with a shot Forster had to palm round the post for a corner!
As the visitors looked to break Norwich down again in the 66th minute,
Berti Cozic theatrically tumbled from what looked like Russell’s fair
challenge, but from the free-kick Sercombe’s long-range shot went
well over.
Tisdale’s move had been working with his side spending more time in
the Norwich half and even the home fans were getting restless.
However, City extended their lead in the 77th minute to calm the home
fans’ nerves.
Lappin delivered a cross which Holt touched to Martin who squeezed
the ball past Jones and a defender on the line.This should have made the
game safe for the home side, but within three minutes the visitors scored
themselves.
The lively Sercombe had his fierce shot saved, but the ball rebounded to
Stewart, who calmly rounded the grounded Forster to score his first
ever goal at Carrow Road.
Russell and Stewart were then booked after some pushing and shoving
as the Canary midfielder tried to get the ball from the back of the net.
Exeter’s reprieve was short-lived, because City’s playmaking maestro,
Hoolahan, fed the ball perfectly behind the defence for Holt to run onto
with just Jones to beat. He confidently drew the keeper out before
going round him and guiding the ball into the unguarded net with the
outside of his right foot
This was Hoolahan’s last contribution before he was replaced by Johnson.
Within two minutes he had the home crowd on their feet with a dazzling
piece of skill as he went on a mazy run through the Grecian’s defence,
ending with a curling right foot shot just missing the top corner in front
of the Barclay faithful, who wasted no time in chanting "Oli! Oli!" to
show their appreciation of the latest addition to the first team squad.
With just three minutes of normal time remaining Oli's pace and
persistence earned City another corner, but this time Lappin’s
delivery was too close to the keeper who caught it with ease..
Both sides played out the four minutes of added time, without creating
any further chances.
FULL-TIME: Norwich 3 Exeter 1
TEAMS:
City:
Forster (gk), Drury, Nelson, Doherty, Martin, Holt ©, Hoolahan
(Johnson 83), Hughes, Lappin, Russell, Smith.
Unused Subs: Rudd (gk), Ostemobor, Gill, Adeyemi, McNamee, McDonald.
Exeter:
Jones (gk), Tully, Duffy, Russell (Sercombe 62), Seaborne, Taylor ©,
Harley, Stansfield (Logan 62), Golbourne, Cozic, Fleetwood (Stewart 62)
Unused Subs: Marriott (gk), Edwards, Saunders, Dunne.
Goals:
City: Holt (8, 82), Martin (77)
Exeter: Stewart (80)
Yellow cards:
Norwich: Russell (81)
Exeter: Duffy (33), Stewart (81)
Referee: Mr Darren Deadman
Attendance: 24,995