Norwich City vs Rotherham United. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance26,813.
Saturday 15 October 2016 19:04, UK
Norwich maintained their superb start to the season at Carrow Road as they beat Rotherham 3-1 to move back to the top of the Sky Bet Championship table.
The Canaries made it 16 points from a possible 18 at their home fortress as goals from Wes Hoolahan, Cameron Jerome and substitute Steven Naismith saw off the league's bottom side.
Dexter Blackstock briefly brought Rotherham into it by cutting Norwich's lead to 2-1 midway through the second half, but Norwich found a third and held on comfortably to move ahead of Huddersfield, who were set to face Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.
Rotherham gave a good account of themselves but the fact remains that they have lost five games on the trot and remain rooted to the foot of the table.
Alex Neil's side took a while to get going but there was no looking back once they went in front after 17 minutes. Hoolahan showed great composure in the box to sidestep a defender and slide the ball past Lee Camp after good work from the impressive Alex Pritchard on his first league start.
Jacob Murphy should have made it 2-0 before the break only to shoot wastefully into the side-netting, but City continued to dominate and finally got the second goal they deserved midway through the second period.
The excellent Hoolahan swung in a cross for the left that Jerome guided home with the slightest of touches and it looked as though it would be a comfortable end to the game for the hosts.
But after seeing an effort from Jon Taylor chalked off for offside the Millers gave themselves a lifeline after 74 minutes. Darnell Fisher got down the left and crossed for Blackstock, who had only been on the pitch for four minutes, to convert from close range.
Rotherham never really threatened to score a second, however, and Norwich made the points safe in the 89th minute when Naismith was left with an open goal after a cross from the left from fellow substitute Josh Murphy.
Norwich manager Alex Neil:
"I think the performance was really good. We had a lot of the ball, created lots of chances and the only complaint I could make is that we didn't win the game by a bigger margin.
"To be honest in the first half I thought we were a little bit wasteful because it could easily have been 3-0 at half-time and I don't think they would have had any complaints."
Rotherham manager Alan Stubbs:
"We were playing against a Premier League group of players in all but name and when we made it 2-1 we gave them a little scare.
"To be fair Norwich are a good side and they deserved to win the game but the lads gave it a good go and had we been up against a lesser side we might have got something from it.
