Middlesbrough beat Norwich to maintain winning start

Finn Azaz scored 12 goals for Middlesbrough last season

Middlesbrough continued their perfect start to the Championship season under Rob Edwards with victory over 10-man Norwich City.

The Teesiders made it three wins from three in the league after goals by Finn Azaz and Tommy Conway late in the first half put them in control of the game.

Norwich boss Liam Manning's hopes of a first league win at Carrow Road after taking charge of his hometown club further evaporated when Jacob Wright was shown a red card for a rash challenge on Aidan Morris.

Josh Sargent pulled one back from Kenny McLean's long ball but the Canaries were unable to conjure up an equaliser as they suffered back-to-back home defeats, having lost to Millwall on the opening day of the season.

Norwich made a forced change with Wright replacing Marcelino Nunez, ruled out by an ankle injury, while Boro preferred Azaz to Abdoulaye Kante in their starting 11, having rejected an offer to sell him in the week.

Azaz had the first effort of the game but was off target and it was Norwich who looked more threatening as the half wore on, with Dael Fry having to time a vital tackle to perfection after Ante Crnac played Jack Stacey in behind and Sargent heading wide from Wright's cross.

Papa Diallo fizzed a shot just wide of the post but home keeper Vladan Kovacevic was relieved to see Morris' chip clear the bar after the Boro player won possession in midfield, only to be beaten at his near post two minutes before the interval when some good one-touch football by the visitors led to Azaz putting them in front with a shot which took a slight deflection.

And the lead was doubled when Morris again showed greater hunger for the ball to launch another attack and then provided the ball in for Conway to convert from close range.

Norwich were 3-1 down at half-time before drawing the corresponding fixture last season, when Conway scored twice for Boro, and the two late goals meant another inspiring team talk was needed, this time from Manning.

But they lost Stacey to injury following the re-start and then Wright was given his marching orders – McLean having been sent off against Boro in that previous game in October 2024.

Manning sent on skipper McLean as a substitute for his first appearance of the season following a foot injury but Kovacevic had to rush out to deny Sontje Hansen and prevent Norwich falling further behind.

Boro introduced Sverre Nypan for his debut in place of Azaz following his midweek loan move from Manchester City, and he had the chance to set up Morris for the clincher, only for the ball to clip his team-mate's heel.

And as Norwich brought the ball clear, McLean picked out Sargent with a perfect long ball and the US international lobbed Sol Brynn for his fourth goal in four games in league and cup, the first Boro have conceded this season, but it proved to be only a consolation.

'We turned the ball over too cheaply' - reaction

Norwich head coach Liam Manning told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"We did a really good job first half of problem solving and I thought we managed to start putting a bit of pressure on higher up.

"We got some control of the ball but have to show more quality when we do break their structure, we had a couple of half-decent chances.

"We'd had a couple of warning signs and turned the ball over far too cheaply, and at this level when you give it away so easily you end up defending your goal extremely quickly.

"Things are improving but what you can't do is [go from] performing an action at eight out of 10 to a three very quickly, there were far too many of them."

On Wright's sending off: "It was disappointing, frustrating but after that we saw another side to the team and they continued to fight to the end, which is a really important attribute, but ultimately just fell a little bit short."

Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards told BBC Radio Tees:

"It's a really difficult place to come and win games of football - it felt like a number of games within one game.

"At the start, you could see two good teams trading blows, you could see the shape and how they could hurt each other.

"To go in 2-0 up at half-time was fantastic but you'd like to take the game away from them then or not give them any belief, and we did towards the end when we could have gone 3-0 up and 10 seconds later it's in the back of our net.

"Then the stadium starts believing and it became a little bit nervy. You just want to be able to take the sting out of it, keep the ball, manage it, make good decisions - they were charging at us from everywhere but we got over the line and won the game."