Norwich 1-0 Middlesbrough: Tom Trybull hits winner

German midfielder Tom Trybull celebrated signing a new contract by scoring the winning goal as Norwich beat 10-man Middlesbrough 1-0 at Carrow Road.

Having put pen to paper on three-and-a-half year deal on the morning of the game, Trybull drilled home what proved to be the only goal of the game a minute before the interval.

By that time Boro were playing one short, having lost striker Rudy Gestede just before the half-hour mark for a crude lunge on Grant Hanley in the centre circle, and they never seriously threatened to get themselves back in the game.

A deserved win was a boost for Norwich's outside hopes of pushing into the Championship play-offs, while denting the similar aspirations of the visiting side.

The Canaries made a bright start and it took a superb block from Adam Clayton to keep out what looked like a goal-bound shot from James Maddison in the opening exchanges.

But the hosts were unable to maintain the momentum and apart from a couple of wayward shots at each end there was little for the crowd to get excited about until the 28th minute, when the visitors were reduced to 10 men.

Gestede, who already had a yellow card to his name, inexplicably opted to fly into a routine challenge on the halfway line with Hanley going down after being caught by a flying boot. It was just a question of whether it was two yellows or a straight red, and referee Michael Jones chose the latter option.

With Adama Traore pushed forward in a central role ahead of two blocks of four, the visitors coped reasonably comfortably until a minute before half-time when Norwich finally made one of their long spells of possession count.

The ball was moved across the edge of box to Trybull, who took aim and beat Darren Randolph's despairing dive with a low drive into the bottom corner.

Norwich had a good chance to stretch their lead 10 minutes after the break when Maddison was brought down just outside the box. Unsurprisingly the same player picked himself up to take it but while his clever low shot went under the wall it also went inches wide of the upright.

Boro were hardly getting a look in and manager Tony Pulis brought on former City midfielder Jonny Howson to a big ovation just after the hour mark in an attempt to liven things up.

Randolph twice kept the visitors in the game with good saves low down to his right to keep out stinging shots from Nelson Oliveira before gathering another shot, this time from outside the box, from Josh Murphy.

Ben Gibson finally got an effort on target for Boro nine minutes from time, but his tame header from a deep free-kick was easy for an underworked Angus Gunn as Norwich comfortably saw out the game.

The managers

Daniel Farke: "It was a brilliant day both for Tom and the club. I was really pleased when he signed his contract, we all were. It gave us a little bit more motivation and energy before the game.

"Sometimes it goes like this in football when one good thing is followed by another. Scoring goals isn't necessarily the main part of Tom's game because he isn't often in places on the field to do that. But he is a player with very good technical ability and it was a very good strike."

Tony Pulis: "For the first one I don't think it was a booking at all. Rudy couldn't see their player and there was absolutely no intent. For the second one I have seen challenges in the Premier League this week that were 10 times worse than that and the players haven't been sent off.

"I am very disappointed about what was a game-changing decision by the referee. I thought it was a good game until the sending off but I don't want to focus too much on that. We created two good chances before the red card and one good one after it but we didn't take them and that is very disappointing."