Norwich City 1-1 Southampton: Canaries come from behind to draw with Saints
- Published
- comments
Josh Sargent's goal was his fourth of the season for Norwich
Josh Sargent scored an equaliser for Norwich that held Southampton to a frustrating 1-1 draw despite still stretching their unbeaten run to 18 games.
The visitors finally found the net after 70 minutes in a match with few chances at either end, when Kyle Walker-Peters broke down the right and left Adam Armstrong with a simple tap-in from a few yards out.
But Sargent brought the Canaries level eight minutes later in only his second appearance since a four-month injury lay-off, slotting the ball into the net from a Jonathan Rowe cross.
The draw leaves Southampton still three points behind Ipswich in third, while Norwich stay 13th.
While Saints continued their impressive run, boss Russell Martin will be questioning how his side failed to take all three points after completely controlling the match, creating almost all the attacking opportunities and seeing Norwich only manage two shots on target across the 90 minutes.
For all their possession, Saints failed to make it count, particularly during the first half, and it was not until the 25th minute that they troubled Angus Gunn when Taylor Hardwood-Bellis' header went straight at the Canaries keeper.
But they came close to taking the lead right before the break, when Armstrong back-heeled the ball to Stephens only for his strike to rattle the crossbar.
Norwich did get the ball in the net during the opening half through Sam McCallum although the whistle had already long gone for offside in the build up.
Martin - who captained the Canaries during his playing career - tweaked Southampton's formation during the break and brought on Che Adams in a bid to inject more of an attacking threat.
And they went in front when Walker-Peters drove past his marker to reach the byline and pulled the ball back , leaving Armstrong with an easy finish into the net from close range.
David Wagner responded by making two changes of his own, taking off a defender for more presence up front and it paid off instantly as Jonathan Rowe played in Sargent, who curled the ball around Gavin Bazunu to score his fourth of the campaign.
Buoyed by the equaliser, Norwich came close to the winner late on through a header from Rowe but both sides had to settle for a point.
Norwich manager David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:
"It was a hard-fought point, a solid performance, solid point, deserved point as well.
"We have known how difficult it would be today and if you consider that we only worked for six minutes yesterday on the pitch on our new formation and new shape and a lot of video work and how the players execute it was great.
"We had our opportunities in the first half where we were not ruthless enough.
"A fantastic performance and a shift which the players put in on the grass today, which is why I am very pleased."
Southampton manager Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent:
"It wasn't even a game. Their goal came out of nowhere, we forced the ball when we shouldn't, we had chances to foul him or take the ball but we don't, let him inside the pitch and b e punished for that.
"We were so good, we should have scored more goals. In every area of the game we were better than them today. I'm frustrated - 1-0 up we were so in control of the game.
"They changed their approach today, their shape which is a testament to how well our lads have done that the opposition feel they have to do that. The atmosphere was as flat as I've ever seen it here - and I've played a lot of games here - we spoke about that and trying to prey on that.
"We were really good, just couldn't get the second goal and even then they didn't have any moments, they didn't really cut us open."
Test your knowledge of obscure words: Take the ridiculously difficult rare words quiz
How Conan Doyle came to resent his iconic creation: Lucy Worsley explores an extraordinary love-hate relationship
