Norwich City vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance25,275.
Saturday 17 December 2016 13:23, UK
Elias Kachunga's double fired Huddersfield up to third in the Sky Bet Championship as they won 2-1 at Norwich on Friday night.
A fast start at Carrow Road saw Kachunga's early opener quickly cancelled out by Jonny Howson, but the Terriers striker got his second before half-time to secure the three points.
The result will only serve to pile the pressure upon Alex Neil, who has seen Norwich now lose seven of their last nine Championship games.
The Canaries stay ninth in the table, and could find themselves dropping to 10th if Fulham win on Saturday.
It took little under five minutes for Huddersfield to find the lead in slightly controversial circumstances. Kasey Palmer started the move as he drove at the Norwich defence before finding Tommy Smith down the right, and his first-time cross found Kachunga at the far post, who appeared to be in a slightly offside position as he headed home.
The home side, however, recovered extremely quickly and they were level just 66 seconds later. Robbie Brady did well to hook a cross into the box from the byline, and Howson was on hand to nod home past Danny Ward.
Despite that, Norwich couldn't really build on their equaliser, and Huddersfield's passing game overwhelmed them for large periods of the first half.
That being said, it took a dismal error from Graham Dorrans for them to get their next clear-cut chance after 38 minutes, as his shocking attempt at a backpass played Nahki Wells clean through on goal, but Sebastien Bassong did well to get back and deny the striker the chance to slot into an empty net after he'd beaten John Ruddy.
Just two minutes later, though, Huddersfield finally got their noses in front again, as Kachunga led a counter attack, before playing a one-two with Smith into the box and powerfully toe-poking into the bottom corner.
Neil made a change at the break in attempt to get some control back for Norwich, throwing on Alex Tettey for Youssouf Mulumbu in midfield, and the second half was a far more even affair.
In fact, after 58 minutes, the home side had a glorious opportunity to equalise as Nelson Oliveira capitalised on a Christopher Schindler error to get in behind the Huddersfield box, but his attempt to lift the ball over Ward also beat the far post.
Norwich made two more changes soon afterwards as Cameron Jerome and Steven Naismith entered the fray, but the changes couldn't help them equalise again, and Huddersfield held on for the win.
Norwich boss Alex Neil:
"Obviously the result was the most important thing and we didn't win the game. The disappointing thing was we had a lot of clear-cut chances we didn't take.
"In the first half we didn't play well, I thought we looked leggy. But in the second half it was the opposite, we were in their faces and in control of it, but the opportunities we had didn't go in the back of the net. Ultimately goals change games and we gave ourselves too much to do.
"What I did a year ago doesn't matter now, results are the be all and end all. There's always going to be pressure, the Norwich fans demand and deserve that we win more games than we lose, and that's not been the case."
Huddersfield boss David Wagner:
"It was another strong performance from the lads, like we have done in the last week. Even when we lost a few games we still performed well and I think today our fighting and working was great.
"We scored some good goals and played some good stuff over a long period of the game. We had a little bit of luck, which you need against one of the best teams in the division.
"We are happy and I'm very proud of the boys. We made five changes after we beat Burton, and that rotation policy is what you have to do if your squad isn't the biggest and you like to play this intense style the whole season. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."
