All in all, I think that this was a decent result, taking a point home from Brentford’s shiny new stadium. As everybody knows, Brentford are a very good footballing side, even after losing Watkins and Benrahma in the summer/autumn transfer window.
Norwich were dealt an early set-back when they lost Xavi Quintilla in the warm-up. It seems as though Xavi was a doubt, with our Spanish left-back receiving treatment this afternoon on an unspecified injury. The fact that he was withdrawn so late, leaving only six players on the substitutes’ bench when Jacob Sorensen had to step in for his full debut in the unfamiliar position of left-back, tells me that Daniel Farke was expecting Xavi to make it.
Other than that, Mario Vrancic replaced Jordan Hugill in the starting XI.
Norwich started brightly and had plenty of the ball, making Brentford chase shadows in the early stages and they should’ve been ahead when Buendia raced clear before checking back and sending Pinnock out for a hot-dog, only to fire over Raya’s bar when he should’ve scored.
The ever dangerous, Ivan Toney scored a tap-in on 27 minutes to put the hosts into the lead and after that City struggled a bit. Having said that, Grant Hanley headed over when well placed from a Buendia free-kick but Tim Krul also made an unbelievable one-handed save to keep City in the game at the break.
In the second half, Norwich huffed and puffed, after replacing Cantwell, who was a doubt before kick-off, with Placheta. Hugill and Kenny McLean were thrown into the fray as Norwich chased the game with 20 minutes to go and it was Mayor McLean who scored a scrappy but hugely valuable goal with just four minutes to go.
A shot from the edge of the area took a deflection off Brentford’s Sorensen and Raya was wrong-footed. He tried to re-adjust but was unable to get back across his goal and despite a full-stretch dive, he was unable to keep out McLean’s slow rolling effort.
That was how it finished, despite a late flourish from City, and a point was probably a fair result, and as I say, in the end, it was a good result for the Canaries.
The games are coming thick and fast at the moment and that is set to continue for a few weeks yet. Not losing, despite again not playing at their best is a positive sign for Norwich.
OTBC