Norwich warmed up for Saturday’s East Anglian derby at high-flying Ipswich by beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 at Carrow Road to make it four wins in their last six Championship games.
An early wonder-strike on his full debut from Borja Sainz set the Canaries on their way and they responded impressively in the second half after being pegged back by Bailey Cadamarteri’s 32nd-minute header.
Ashley Barnes restored City’s lead three minutes into the second half and Jonathan Rowe’s back-post header – his ninth goal of a productive campaign – settled the issue after 72 minutes.
The win keeps Norwich on the fringes of the play-off race, while for the relegation-threatened Owls it brought an end to an encouraging run of seven points from a possible nine.
Norwich made a dream start, with Sainz firing them in front with a glorious goal after just seven minutes.
The Spanish winger left a couple of Wednesday defenders in his wake after cutting in from the left before letting fly with a rising drive from the edge of the box that flew past goalkeeper Cameron Dawson and into the roof of the net.
That magic moment set the scene for an entertaining first half, with both sides having plenty of chances.
It needed a superb save from Angus Gunn to keep out Michael Ihiekwe’s close-range header, while at the other end Barnes struck the woodwork with a powerful shot when he had the goal at his mercy.
That miss was to prove costly, with the visitors getting back on level terms three minutes later from a Will Vaulks long throw.
His delivery was nodded on by Ihiekwe and Cadamarteri was on hand at the back post to head home his second senior goal for the Owls.
Barnes missed another good opportunity before the break, lofting the ball over with just Dawson to beat, while the Wednesday stopper needed to be alert to collect a downward header from Adam Idah deep into stoppage time.
Norwich were quick out of the blocks in the second half as well, regaining the lead in the 48th minute as Barnes finally found the target.
An incisive pass from Gabriel Sara found Sainz in space on the left and this time the Spaniard sent in a perfect low cross for the former Burnley striker to slide home from close range.
Callum Patterson fired into the side-netting as the visitors sought an immediate response, but Norwich were largely untroubled and made it 3-1 with 18 minutes remaining.
A left-wing cross to the back post from Dimi Giannoulis was completely misjudged by the visitors’ defence, allowing an unmarked Rowe the straightforward task of nodding home from a few yards.
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