Norwich City defender Shane Duffy celebrates his second-half equaliser against Preston North End
Norwich City recovered from a calamitous start at Deepdale to salvage a point against Preston North End in the Championship.
The Canaries found themselves two goals down inside the first 12 minutes as Preston scored from the penalty spot through Sam Greenwood and then doubled their lead through Duane Holmes.
But Johannes Hoff Thorup’s side maintained their composure by halving the deficit in the shadow of half-time through leading scorer Borja Sainz.
A second-half goal from Shane Duffy levelled matters to give both sides a point apiece with Preston maintaining their unbeaten record at home under manager Paul Heckingbottom.
Norwich will make the long journey back home to Norfolk wondering how they had not taken three points from this encounter but after an error-strewn start a point was probably fair.
Preston were on the board within five minutes when they made the most of a rush of blood to the head from George Long in the Norwich goal after the keeper upended Emil Riis Jakobsen on the right edge of the box.
Greenwood, with his first Championship goal for Preston since his loan move from Leeds United, did the rest from the spot, hammering straight down the middle as Long dived obligingly to his right.
Bad turned to worse seven minutes later when Holmes dispatched a Greenwood through ball after the visitors lost possession in the centre circle.
Credit to Norwich, who could have taken the goals as the trigger to rip up the pre-match game plan, but rather than backing off they doubled down on their high, full-bore passing game.
Undoubtedly, they were the better side from there to the break, too, locking Preston into reverse with relentless possession and slick movement.
That pressure was to get its reward in first-half stoppage time, Borja Sainz turning in Kellen Fisher’s square ball for an eighth league goal of the campaign.
Just short of the hour Norwich survived a scare when Jakobsen narrowly fired wide after a swift counter-attack. But the visitors continued to look for the difficult passes through the lines.
And three minutes later a surging run from Duffy and a superb return pass from Josh Sargent was finished off with a firm side-foot from the centre-half to level matters.
The result keeps Norwich a point outside the play-off places in seventh while Preston sit in 14th.
Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire:
"Forget when the goals were scored, if you come and draw 2-2 against a side who are really improving and who are a good side but where we had the better chances, I am not disappointed with the performance.
"We missed a big opportunity at 2-1 and not long after they score, and then after that it was to and fro but we were dangerous on the break after that.
"We are talking about missing chances, which is really pleasing, but we can’t stop and rest on our laurels, we’ve got to keep pushing and improving."
Norwich City manager Johannes Hoff Thorup speaking to BBC Radio Norfolk:
"It was a game for us when many other days we would take three points so I am definitely not happy. But of course it is difficult when you make a start like we did.
"As a team as coaching staff we have to look into how we can start like that [to] be so open and so vulnerable to simple passes.
"It is positioning and decision-making and while I am not in the game to blame individuals we must look at it with critical eyes and see how we can do better next time.
"I am pleased with the response with the boys but we can do better than we did tonight."
