Norwich head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup believes his side could still gatecrash the Championship play-off party after seeing them clinch a dramatic 1-0 win over West Brom at Carrow Road.
Josh Sargent’s well-taken stoppage-time strike took the Canaries to within five points of the play-off positions with seven games remaining and put a dent in the visitors’ hopes of finishing in the top six.
“Even before the match the lads were confident we were still in with a chance,” Thorup said.
“We needed to win this one and now we have we can look forward to a final push. Obviously we need to go on a run and win more games than we have been doing recently but this is a good start.
“We have been on the wrong end of the result in quite a few 50/50 games this season so it was good to be on the right side this time – we all needed this result and I am delighted for the lads.
“We got the goal in the end – and it was good to get a clean sheet too.
“It’s no secret we have been a bit too open recently, and have conceded too many goals, so we changed things a bit to give the lads at the back a bit more protection.
“It worked well, although it does make other aspects of the game a bit more difficult. We certainly weren’t on the front foot as much as we normally are.”
West Brom had created a few chances early on, with Angus Gunn making an excellent save to keep out Torbjorn Heggem’s close-range header and then from Kyle Bartley in the final seconds.
But in between they rarely troubled the Norwich back-line and could have few complaints when the hosts grabbed a winner in the second minute of added time.
A careless loss of possession enabled substitute Marcelino Nunez to thread a ball through to Sargent, who showed great composure to hold off a chasing defender and steer the ball past keeper Joe Wildsmith.
West Brom head coach Tony Mowbray felt his side had been hard done by in the end.
“I wouldn’t say we deserved to win – but I don’t think we deserved to lose it either,” he said.
“To be honest I would have been a bit disappointed with 0-0.
“Norwich were a bit more pragmatic than they normally are but I thought we generally dominated possession and controlled the game – but you have to score a goal. We had our chances and didn’t take them.
“It was a bit cruel to us in the end – a sloppy ball in midfield, a pass through and a good finish.
“But if you don’t take your chances, don’t score a goal, that sort of thing can always happen.
“Having said that, if our performance levels stay like they were today between now and the end of the season then we will get results and achieve what we want to achieve.”
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