Norwich City were beaten for only the second time away from home this season when they went down 3-1 at Deepdale against Preston North End.
The Canaries only made one change, with Alex Tettey replacing the injured Mario Vrancic, from the side that won against Ipswich on Sunday at Carrow Road.
City conceded in only the game’s second minute from a Paul Gallagher free-kick that was nodded past Tim Krul from close range by Ben Davies.
Before they conceded again, Teemu Pukki was denied by the outstretched leg of former canary and now Preston keeper, Declan Rudd but they were two nil down on 24 minutes when Paul Gallagher converted a penalty after a clumsy challenge on Darnell Fisher by Emi Buendia.
Norwich were awarded a penalty of their own after a foul on Onel Hernandez by Ben Pearson but Marco Stiepermann saw his spot-kick well saved by Rudd.
That’s the fourth penalty miss out of the five City have been awarded this season.
The second half saw Jordan Rhodes replace Tom Trybull at the break and what followed was a spell of intense Norwich pressure with Preston camped on the edge of their own box.
The Canaries just couldn’t make the breakthrough though and the game’s third goal came on 73 minutes when Alan Browne struck Krul’s bar from distance and Sean Maguire was on hand to slam the rebound home.
Kenny McLean entered the fray for Stiepermann on 73 minutes and Ben Godfrey then thought he’d scored with a header from a McLean free-kick, only for the ball to be cleared off the line.
The last throw of the dice for Daniel Farke was when Felix Passlack replaced Hernandez with six minutes to go but the game was effectively up.
There was still time for Teemu Pukki to get his customary goal though with a left footed shot from a tight angle in the third minute of injury time but it was nothing more than a consolation.
Declan Rudd was named man of the match as City looked out of sorts. They looked tired and leggy in the first half and rarely got their passing game going against a determined Preston side.
The midfield looked to be where the game was lost for Norwich with Trybull and Tettey unable to make much headway in the centre of the park. Tettey’s passing was up and down and it seemed as though he kept getting the ball stuck under his feet around every third time he got possession.
I would’ve liked to have seen Kenny McLean play alongside Trybull but understand why Farke went for that experienced duo.
I suppose that all of us would’ve taken this position with 14 games left to go and having only just lost their second away game of the season, their first defeat on the road since August.
The bad news is that both Leeds and Sheffield United won on the same night but we go again on Saturday at Bolton.
You can’t win them all and we didn’t really do enough to deserve to win this one, despite how the stats read.
OTBC