Norwich City vs Burton Albion. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance24,841.
Tuesday 12 September 2017 22:40, UK
Norwich were frustrated by a rearguard action from a determined Burton side as a disappointing encounter at Carrow Road ended goalless.
The Canaries improved markedly after the break and created enough chances to have won the game comfortably, but the Brewers stood firm as they produced an excellent response to Saturday's 5-0 drubbing at Leeds.
For the hosts it was a fourth point from two home games, having beaten Birmingham 1-0 at the weekend, although they will be disappointed to have not collected the full allotment after dominating the game for long periods.
A desperately dull first half only came to life in the closing couple of minutes, with the home side missing a couple of excellent chances.
The first arrived when poor Burton defending allowed a mishit Wes Hoolahan cross to fall nicely for Nelson Oliveira just outside the six-yard box but the Portuguese striker's shot on the turn went well over.
Moments later Hoolahan got to the byline and picked out Mario Vrancic, but again the connection was poor and goalkeeper Steve Bywater was able to snuff out the danger.
Before that, a long range effort just over the bar from Josh Murphy was all the home fans had to get excited about, while the Brewers had the best early chance.
They could easily have gone ahead on nine minutes when Luke Murphy found Joe Mason with a delightful through ball but fortunately for the home side Angus Gunn was out quickly to block.
It took a goal-line block from Ivo Pinto to prevent Jamie Allen from firing Burton ahead from close range in the opening minute of the second period but it was Norwich who were having the bulk of the ball and Bywater did well to tip over a 25-yard effort from Hoolahan as the pressure built.
City went even closer moments later when Hoolahan put Murphy in the clear, with Bywater producing an excellent stop to keep the scores level.
Oliveira then fired into the side-netting from the edge of the box as the one-way traffic continued, while Murphy deflected a deep Vrancic cross onto the post.
As the game entered the final 10 minutes substitute Yanic Wildschut saw a love drive deflected just wide and James Maddison got the ball caught under his feet when it dropped nicely for him in the box.
Daniel Farke: "I thought we could have done much better in the first 25 minutes. We started the game in sloppy fashion. We didn't move the ball quickly enough and didn't create anything offensively. We didn't put any pressure on Burton and allowed them to get into the game.
"After that I thought we did much better. We created some brilliant chances and unfortunately we were not able to take any of them. It looked like we would score when Josh Murphy was put through but the goalkeeper made a good save.
"It is never easy against a side who come only to defend and try to take time out of the game, but obviously it is disappointing to take only one point. A positive is a second successive clean sheet, which is always pleasing, but this was a game we were looking to win."
Nigel Clough: "It's our first clean sheet, our first away point and gives us something to build on. I thought we defended really well and although Steve Bywater made one really good save when their lad was put clean through I can't remember him having too much to do.
"For us to play a side like Norwich and come away with something we need all 11, in fact all 14 players to put in a shift and work incredibly hard and that is what happened tonight. My only disappointment is that we didn't take one of the two very good chances we created, Had one gone in that would have given us something extra to hold onto and I could have been sat here talking about a 1-0 win. Scoring goals is obviously the next target for us - but I will certainly settle for this result."
