Norwich 4-2 Stoke: Josh Sargent double steers Canaries to victory
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Stoke City at Carrow Road on Saturday; Josh Sargent's double steers the Canaries towards a comfortable home victory.
Saturday 22 February 2025 18:22, UK
Norwich comfortably saw off Stoke 4-2 at Carrow Road to record their first win in four matches and reignite their bid to reach the Championship play-offs.
In-form striker Josh Sargent made it seven goals in six games with a well-taken double, with Lewis Dobbin and a Junior Tchamadeu own goal ensuring a deserved victory.
Stoke briefly threatened to make a game of it when Lewis Baker equalised just before the break and the same player netted a late penalty but they were well beaten in the end and remain just five points clear of the relegation zone.
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Norwich completely dominated the first half and squandered numerous chances to take the lead before finally going ahead just past the half-hour mark.
Marcelino Nunez should have opened the scoring after just three minutes but screwed his shot wide from a good position after being picked out by Borja Sainz.
Nunez was then narrowly off target with a free-kick and Kellen Fisher spooned his shot over with a clear sight of goal as the one-sided nature of proceedings continued and it was no surprise when the Canaries finally got their noses in front after 32 minutes.
Nunez produced a wonderful defence-splitting pass to given Dobbin a clear run on goal and the Aston Villa loanee neatly sidestepped a back-tracking defence before finishing emphatically into the far corner.
After their strong start, Norwich's intensity dropped in the closing stages of the first half and they were punished when Stoke equalised two minutes into stoppage time.
Shane Duffy's poor pass out of defence went straight to Ben Pearson who quickly picked out Andrew Moran and with the home defence stretched the ball was squared for Baker, who produced a neat finish from just inside the box.
Norwich took a little over two minutes of the second half to restore their lead as Sargent maintained his hot streak since returning from injury,
Sainz's pass into the box should have been dealt with by Enda Stevens but the defender had a bad touch and the in-form American striker pounced to slam the ball home.
Viktor Johansson then produced a brilliant finger-tip save to prevent Lucien Mahovo from making it 3-1 before Baker had a goal chalked off at the other end for offside.
Sargent doubled his tally on 71 minutes to stretch the home side's lead - and what a beauty it was.
The striker, who scores most of his goals from inside the box, cracked home a superb shot into the top corner from some 20 yards after cleverly working himself a yard of space.
Norwich were now in complete control and notched a fourth after 78 minutes when a marauding Fisher found Mahovo, whose shot took a wicked deflection off Tchamadeu to beat a helpless Johansson.
Stoke grabbed a consolation deep into added time when Baker converted from the spot after substitute Million Manhoef had been brought down in the box by Duffy.
The managers
Norwich's Johannes Hoff Thorup:
"I am a little bit annoyed to be honest because it should never have been a 4-2 game, it should have been a 5-0 one.
"Not for the first time this season we score a goal, then drop back and lose a bit of momentum. And then we give the ball away and they have a goal out of nowhere.
"In the second half it nearly happened again when we scored and then gave it away in a central area and they get a goal which is fortunately ruled out for offside.
"We made problems for ourselves and, with due respect to Stoke, against a better team than them it could have ended up as a draw.
"Having said that I was pleased with a lot of our play in the final third - it was a good offensive performance from the lads, we created lots of opportunities and scored some beautiful goals.
"When we are at our best we are definitely up there with a chance of getting in the play-offs."
Stoke's Mark Robins:
"I though we lost our discipline in the second half - we let them drag us around and gave them carte blanche to do what they wanted.
"You have got to work within a framework - you can make mistakes but you can't allow a good team like Norwich to do what they did to us today.
"We didn't defend well enough, we didn't win enough duels, and allowed them to walk through us at times.
"When you score two goals away from home it's very disappointing.
"We gave them too much respect in the first half, allowed them to dictate the game, but we defended well enough and got our equaliser.
"But what I saw in the second half was not good enough."
