Norwich City 3-1 Sheffield Wednesday: Canaries register fourth win in six games
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Norwich City claimed their fourth win in six Championship games to end struggling Sheffield Wednesday's recent mini-revival.
The Canaries secured victory with goals from Borja Sainz, Ashley Barnes and Jonathan Rowe, with Bailey Cadamarteri having equalised for the visitors.
Danny Rohl's Owls had taken seven points from the previous nine available before their trip to East Anglia, but were second best for most of the 90 minutes at Carrow Road.
David Wagner's men are back in mid-table after taking 13 points from 18, having lost five of their previous six matches.
It took seven minutes for Norwich to take the lead. Sainz claimed possession 25 yards from goal, carried the ball towards the box and drove a wonderful rising shot into the top right-hand corner - a goal-of-the-season contender by the Spanish midfielder.
Despite their early advantage, the hosts found themselves under pressure as Wednesday capitalised on City's failure to keep possession.
Shane Duffy was forced into a dramatic block to deny Cadamarteri, with Anthony Musaba missing the target from the second attempt.
Norwich could have made it 2-0 when Barnes smashed his effort straight against the bar, and the hosts were to pay for their wastefulness just two minutes later.
Will Vaulks' long throw was nodded on by Michael Ihiekwe straight into the path of Cadamarteri, who rose unchallenged at the far post to nod the visitors level.
Having missed that first-half chance, there was no denying the impressive Barnes his goal in the 48th minute when he raced onto Sainz's pass to convert.
Rowe made it 3-1 with 19 minutes to go when he connected with a left-wing cross to head in a scruffy goal, his weak far-post header dribbling just inside Wednesday goalkeeper Cameron Dawson's left-hand post.
Wednesday made life a little uncomfortable for the hosts late on, but without managing to reduce the deficit.
Norwich boss David Wagner:
"Four days ago I spoke about how frustrated I was about not taking our chances, so to put things right at the very first opportunity is very pleasing and just the way it should be.
"We scored three wonderful goals, created a lot of other opportunities and also defended well, even though their set pieces caused us one or two problems.
"We scored a great goal early on and could have had more but we didn't make it easy for ourselves and conceded an equaliser.
"It is always pleasing in those circumstances when you then go on and win the game.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl:
"I am okay with my players after that, even though I am obviously disappointed with the result.
"Now we must recover and be ready to go again on Saturday when we have another big game (at home to fellow strugglers QPR).
"In each half we had early goals to deal with and that didn't help us, especially in the second half when we had just changed things.
"I thought we did a lot of things very well, although our pressing wasn't sharp enough and at times our positioning wasn't good enough.
"We tried everything but in the end it wasn't enough and our opponents were better in the box and deserved the win."
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