Norwich City salvaged a late draw at Brentford on a day when most of the other results in the Sky Bet Championship went for them, courtesy of a Timm Klose header.
City were beaten in their last outing at Carrow Road on Saturday in that crazy 4-3 defeat at the hands of Derby County, their first defeat in 13 matches. A response was required and this, at least in my view, was always going to be a tough place to go to try and get it.
Brentford had a great start to the season but struggled after Dean Smith left for Villa, which is when they came to Carrow Road and were beaten by that scintillating Emi Buendia volley. They were and are though, a decent footballing side at this level with a potent threat in Neal Maupay up front.
Brentford took the lead on 22 minutes when Jeaniver headed home from a 19th minute corner. Conceding from another set-piece was not what was required and neither was losing Marco Stiepermann to injury at around the same time. Marco was replaced by Tom Trybull.
Pukki was denied a decent shout for a penalty and Vrancic shot just wide for City at the other end but that was as good as it got in the first half of a fairly scrappy game.
The second half saw Tim Krul make two superb saves from Maupay before Timm Klose headed home from a Vrancic corner on 83 minutes to draw the game level.
City pushed hard at the end for the winner and Brentford were hanging on a little but it wasn’t to be as the game finished as a 1-1 draw.
The main thing was not to lose and a point a piece was about right in my estimation.
West Brom and Leeds both lost but Sheffield United won again and are looking ominous in third place, just two points behind City now.
It could’ve been better but it could also have been a lot worse.
There now follows a twelve day break before league hostilities commence again with a potential barnstormer at the Hawthorns against West Brom, with just the small matter of Portsmouth in the FA Cup in between.
OTBC
Griffin Park
Sky Bet Championship
1/01/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 9524
Referee: Gavin Ward
| Brentford | Norwich City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeaniver 22' | Klose 83' | ||||||
| Bentley | Krul | ||||||
| Ngoyo | Aarons | ||||||
| Jeaniver | Zimmermann | ||||||
| Barbet | Klose | ||||||
| Dalsgaard | Godfrey | ||||||
| Mokotjo | Tettey (c) | 51' | |||||
| Sawyers (c) | 79' | Vrancic | |||||
| Henry | Cantwell | 83' | |||||
| Canos | 66' | Stiepermann | 19' | ||||
| Maupay | Hernandez | ||||||
| Benrahma | 75' | Pukki | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Odubajo | McGovern | ||||||
| McEachran | 79' | Pinto | |||||
| Watkins | 63' | Marshall | |||||
| Dasilva | Trybull | 19' | |||||
| Judge | 75' | Rhodes | 51' | ||||
| Daniels | Hanley | ||||||
| Sorensen | Srbeny | 83' | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 4 | On Target | 3 |
| 5 | Corners | 8 |
| 10 | Fouls | 16 |
| 4 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 46 | % | 54 |