Norwich recorded their first win in 14 matches – and their first at home all season – by seeing off Queens Park Rangers 3-1 at Carrow Road.
The Canaries continued their improvement under new head coach Philippe Clement as they produced an impressive first-half display to comfortably beat a disappointing Rangers side to boost their bid to climb out of the Championship relegation zone.
Emi Marcondes set the ball rolling with an early goal that was quickly cancelled out by Rumarn Burrell, and the hosts did not look back after that, with a Amadou Mbengue own goal and a sweet strike from Amankwah Forson setting them on their way to a long overdue victory.
The match got off to a lively start, with Norwich snatching the lead on nine minutes when Rangers failed to deal with an inswinging Kenny McLean corner and Marcondes blasting home the loose ball from just outside the six-yard box after his initial effort had been blocked.
The visitors were level less than two minutes later, however, after another corner caused havoc. This time the ball fell kindly to Sam Field who was able to deliver a low cross for Burrell to prod home his seventh goal of the season.
Norwich needed a slice of good fortune to get their noses back in front after 33 minutes. This time another McLean corner was missed by everyone until it struck Mbengue, standing a couple yards off the line, and fizzed into the back of the net.
The Canaries wasted no time on building on their lucky break, putting together a sweeping move to make it 3-1 two minutes later. The ball was worked across the face of the box from left to right, with Josh Sargent laying the ball into the path of Forson to calmly curl the ball past keeper Paul Nardi.
The visitors introduced three substitutes at the break in an attempt to get back into the game but despite having plenty of the ball and they unable to make much headway.against a much-improved Norwich side.
The hosts looked to have added a fourth on the hour-mark when Sargent converted Oscar Schwartau’s pass, but the American striker, without a goal in 13 games, was adjudged offside.
Rangers wasted a decent chance to reduce the arrears on 70 minutes as Ilias Chair shot straight at keeper Vladan Kovacevic, while at the other end Nardi produced an outstanding stop to keep out Jacob Wright’s back-post header.
The managers
Norwich’s Philippe Clement:
“Team work got us this result – and I am talking not only about the players and the staff I am talking about the fans as well, I’d like to stress that.
“I think they realised there was an improvement against Oxford on Tuesday (in a 1-1 draw) and today they were behind us right from the start, which really helped.
“I thought we played really well in the first half, we were confident with the ball and without the ball and found the places we were trying to find.
“The players stuck to the plan, even when we conceded, and we fully deserved to be 3-1 ahead at half-time.
“We could have been better in the second half but the team fought well, were resilient and won their duels to get the three points.”
QPR’s Julien Stephan:
“In the first half we lacked the intensity and quality required and got punished.
“We changed it at half-time (with three substitutions) and although we were a bit better we needed to get a second goal early on and it didn’t come.
“We had a few chances but didn’t take them.
“In the end you have to congratulate Norwich on playing a good game and they deserved to win.
“But it has still been a good week for us, six points out of nine with two of those games being away, and we need to put this behind us.”
