Norwich City secured their fifth win in seven Championship matches with a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The Canaries produced a spirited second half fightback after falling behind to an early Lewis Grabban goal just five minutes into the game, a brace from centre half Tim Klose was enough to inflict Forest’s first home defeat of the season and lift Norwich above their opponents into the play-off places.
The win at Forest was arguably the biggest win of the season so far for Daniel Farke and his side, as Norwich demonstrated their ability to win a match from behind for the first time this season. Farke’s side have shown that they can find different ways to win in tight matches, with five of the their six wins so far coming by a one goal margin, and that is a sign that they should start to be considered as genuine contenders for the play-offs and promotion this season.
After an inconsistent season last year in Farke’s first season in charge, which saw The Caneries finish in 14th place on 60 points having won 15 games but also lost 16, there was little expectation on Norwich being amongst the promotion contenders at start of the season. However, despite selling both James Maddison and Josh Murphy, who were heavily influential to Norwich’s campaign last, to Premier League sides Leicester City and Cardiff City in the summer, Norwich’s youthful side are steadily improving and are beginning to look capable of sustaining a promotion challenge, free from the expectation and pressure that is on some of the sides around them.
Speaking to Norwich City’s official website following the win at the City Ground Farke said, “We had a poor start, it was what I expected to be honest in the first game after the international break, and in addition to that we had to have several changes from our successful starting eleven in the recent weeks, I thought before the game it could affect our rhythm and it was exactly like this in the first 15 minutes.”
“Nottingham was on the front foot, they went in the lead and had another strike off the crossbar, but I was unbelievably pleased with our reaction and after we dominated the last 75 minutes of the game.”
“Big compliments to the lads because on this level to turn a game around, especially for such a young side not to get nervous after a poor start, and to be there with this performance is not normal it’s outstanding, so big compliments to the players.”
