Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Norwich City: Canaries improve play-off hopes with victory
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Twenty-year-old Norwich City forward Liam Gibbs (right) had never scored a senior goal before
Norwich City closed the gap on Championship play-off rivals Blackburn Rovers to a single point after winning 2-0 at Ewood Park.
Liam Gibbs, who came in for the departing Teemu Pukki, sprinted through and finished well to get his first Norwich goal before Max Aarons had a shot touched on to the post after half an hour.
Gabriel Sara's powerful shot from an angle early in the second half sealed victory as the Canaries won for the first time in five games.
Norwich keeper Angus Gunn made a superb save with 11 minutes left from Dominic Hyam's deflected header, with Rovers' first meaningful effort on goal, while the Scotland keeper also did well to keep out Tyrhys Dolan late on.
The win sees Norwich stay in seventh place, but they are just one point off sixth-placed Blackburn and one point further behind fifth-placed Millwall with six matches to play - although Rovers have a game in hand on both.
Gibbs gave the Canaries a fine start as he raced on to Josh Sargent's header and outsprinted the Blackburn defence before a fine right-footed finish from the edge of the area for the opener.
Ben Brereton Diaz and Sammie Szmodics both had shots blocked by the Norwich defence before Aarons saw his effort from the edge of the area tipped on to the post and out for a corner by Rovers keeper Aynsley Pears.
Norwich suffered a big blow shortly before half-time when captain Grant Hanley was stretchered off with an Achilles injury, having gone down in considerable pain after what looked like an innocuous slip.
Joe Rankin-Costello's lob over Gunn shortly after the restart was cleared by Aarons before Sara doubled the lead as the Brazilian got on the end of some good play by Onel Hernandez on the left before blasting into the top corner from a tight angle.
Norwich captain Grant Hanley was stretchered off with a painful-looking Achilles injury
But the win came at more injury cost to Norwich when they lost a second central defender in Ben Gibson with what looked like a hamstring problem with 27 minutes to go.
Norwich looked dangerous when they got forward through Hernandez, Gibbs and Pukki - who came on to replace Gibson - as they tried to get a third.
Gunn's save kept a lid on any Norwich nerves despite Rovers claiming they should have had a penalty for handball after a Szmodics shot was blocked in the aftermath.
Pukki almost made it 3-0 with six minutes to go as he dispossessed Hyam and bore down on goal, but Hayden Carter superbly recovered to stop the Finland striker at the near post.
Gunn was forced to make two great saves late on, the first from Dolan after Brereton Diaz flashed a ball across the six-yard box before he got down well to stop the Chile striker in the 89th minute.
Blackburn also forced goalline clearances from Andrew Omobamidele and Sam McCallum in stoppage time, but it was too little too late for Jon Dahl Tomasson's side.
Blackburn Rovers head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I'm disappointed with the result, we knew it was going to be a tough game against a team with Premier League experience, a team who need to play for promotion and need to be up there when you look at the budget and you look at the players.
"The first half was very even, not a lot of chances, but the second half I thought there were more chances.
"I thought we tried to stay in the game, we created chances and there was a very big moment before the second goal, we didn't score at that moment and Norwich got the second goal.
"We kept on creating chances, there were three or four off the line today against a very good side, we're disappointed with the result, but we're still in a very good position, so we should always remember that."
Norwich City head coach David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:
"Everybody knew that you have to make sure, especially against the other top six clubs, that you can win these games
"But all the knocks we conceded in the last days and in this game with Kenny (McLean) injured with a serious injury, skipper (Grant Hanley) looks serious, his Achilles injury we have to wait for a scan, Gibbo (Ben Gibson) a hamstring injury, so we lost both centre-halves in the game.
"We've lost the three most experienced players in our midfield and defence in the last six days and then to win, how they have done it, is massive.
"It was great to see how they fought, how they dug in, how they wanted to go over the difficulties and they deserved the win.
"This is why, for me, it's the biggest win of the season and it gives everybody the belief and the trust in this difficult season that we faced so far. It's game on and even if not a lot of people believe in you, we have to believe in us and we know we believe in us and today the players have shown it in a great manner."