Ramsey Double Helps City Bounce Back To Winning Ways
Norwich City welcomed Stoke City to Carrow Road for a Sky Bet Championship match that was extremely high stakes from Norwich after their really poor run of form after not winning in 6 games seeing them fall down the Championship table after them looking to bounce straight back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Norwich City made 6 changes from Tuesday Night defeat away at Burnley. It saw the return of a number of key players such as Sam Byram, Ben Gibson, Kieran Dowell, Aaron Ramsey, Onel Hernandez and Liam Gibbs.
Stoke came into the game making 2 enforced changes due to injury which saw Dujon Sterling and Tyrese Campbell replaced by Harry Clarke and Jacob Brown.
Norwich then started the game off quite poorly which has been the story of the past few extremely poor team performances. They just could not keep the ball at all and there was plenty of clumsy passes and also Stoke found a lot of space to move the ball freely in the midfield.
The first opportunity fell for Stoke which saw Lewis Baker with plenty of space on the edge of the box and he had a long-range shot, but Angus Gunn was able to watch go well wide of the Norwich goal, but it just showed that Norwich needed to stay switched on because Stoke showed they can not just let them have the ball and get shots off without being suitably challenged for the ball.
Norwich then had a number of their own attempts on goal and Byram went closest to scoring after his heading going over the bar after a good cross from Kieran Dowell. Canaries then went on to take the lead just before half time after Teemu Pukki had his initial shot saved by Joe Bursik, but it fell into the path of Aaron Ramsey who made sure he put into the back of the net for his first Norwich goal after joining Norwich on loan from Aston Villa.
Norwich then came out all guns firing in the 2nd half which is something Norwich fans know that they were able to do but have not seen that recently. Isaac Hayden had the first opportunity which saw his volley saved by the Stoke keeper.
Stoke came forward after they came close Jacob Brown had an opportunity, but he only found the side of the Norwich City net. They then had another opportunity after Nick Powell had a header but just could not guide his header on target.
Norwich then added a goal to their lead after some very good inter play between Pukki and Ramsey which saw him one-on-one with Bursik and he put it past him into the back of the net. Gabriel Sara then had an opportunity to score but Bursik also was able to make the save.
Norwich City then found themselves getting a third goal after Marcelino Nunez had his shot saved but fell to Gabriel Sara who converted it to get the goal.
Stoke at the end of the game scored a late consolation goal after Nick Powell was able to put the ball into the back of the net.
Norwich City: Gunn, Byram, Hanley, Gibson, Hayden (Cantwell 67), Dowell (Sara 56), McCallum, Ramsey, Pukki (Hugill 80), Hernández (Núñez 67), Gibbs
Stoke City: Bursik, Clarke, Jagielka, Wilmot, Fox, Smallbone (Powell 63), Laurent, Baker (Thompson 75), Brown, Gayle (Delap 75), Fosu (Wright-Phillips 75)