Norwich City 2-0 Birmingham: Gabriel Sara and Jonathan Rowe steer Canaries to victory (2024)

Norwich put last weekend's humiliation at Plymouth firmly behind them with a comfortable 2-0 win over Birmingham at Carrow Road.

The Canaries were hammered 6-2 at Home Park, and had also lost their previous home game against Leicester, but two goals inside five minutes early in the second half got their Championship campaign back on track.

Gabriel Sara set the ball rolling in the 55th minute with a close-range header and the hosts gave themselves some breathing space on the hour mark with a well-taken goal from Jonathan Rowe, his sixth of the season.

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For Birmingham it was a fifth league game without a win, following a bright start to the season that had seen them among the early pacesetters.

Norwich had the better of a low-key first half, although a well-drilled visiting defence was largely untroubled.

Adam Idah drilled a low shot just wide on 16 minutes before Dimitris Giannoulis was also narrowly off target after intercepting an attempted header back to his keeper from Cody Drameh.

Idah then headed a right-wing cross straight at John Ruddy while the keeper also safely gathered a snap-shot from just outside the box by Christian Fassnacht.

Birmingham seemed content to soak up the pressure and it took them nearly 40 minutes to register an effort on goal, with Jay Stansfield's long range strike sailing well over the bar.

The Canaries were quick out of the blocks in the second half, almost forcing the ball in from a goalmouth scramble in the very first minute.

But it was the Blues who almost edged in front on 51 minutes.

Stansfield found himself with a clear sight on goal after neat through ball from Koji Miyoshi and it required an excellent stop from Angus Gunn to keep out his powerful shot.

Norwich were stung into action and finally got the goal their dominance deserved four minutes later.

The ball was fed wide to Giannoulis on the left and his cross was delivered perfectly for Sara to head home from inside the six-yard box.

That eased the nerves inside Carrow Road and it was 2-0 shortly afterwards as Birmingham carelessly lost possession in their own half and Rowe burst into the area before beating the exposed Ruddy low to his left.

Miyoshi hit the crossbar with a well-struck shot as the visitors sought a response but that was as good as it got, with Norwich seeing out the game with the minimum of fuss.

The managers...

Norwich's David Wagner:

"The Plymouth defeat showed what can happen when you lose your structure in a game - but I couldn't be happier with the way we played today.

"We looked in control, we defended well and we created our moments. We scored two excellent goals and after that our game management was really good.

"There is no doubt we got what we deserved - there was a lot of focus out there, a lot of effort and most importantly of all we got the win.

"I think the players learned their lessons from the previous league game - there have been two good performances since then, at Fulham in the cup as well as today, and now it is time to look forward, with a busy spell of games coming up."

Birmingham's John Eustace:

"We didn't deserve to lose at Watford and Preston and should have beaten QPR in our last home game.

"Today we were up against a top team, with top players, who will probably finish in the top two or three this season and that needs to be taken into account.

"We were perhaps a little too passive in the first half but we defended well and then created some good chances and could have gone ahead just before they scored.

"I was very disappointed with the way we defended for their two goals -it was so sloppy and not like us - and it was always tough after that.

"But overall it has been a solid start to the season, with just three defeats in nine games, and we now have two home games coming up which we are looking forward to."