Swansea City 2 - Norwich City 3
Grant Holt celebrates - Action Images: Lee Mills Livepic
Norwich City surprised Swansea by hitting back and scoring three goals in 18 minutes in the second half of this week’s featured match at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.
Both teams have had an amazing season so far. Promoted to the top tier of English (and now Welsh) football at the beginning of the season, they stood a respectable 9th and 10th place in the league before their meeting on Saturday.
In front of a crowd of nearly 20,000 proud fans, the Swans welcomed the Canaries to what promised to be an exciting match.
Kick off
Swansea started the match strongly with some slick passing. Norwich responded by pushing forward and catching their hosts offside. On the counter attack, Norwich strikers Grant Holt and Anthony Pilkington looked dangerous firing shots on target. Swansea keeper Michel Vorm was able to anticipate the attacks and save the goals.
After 22 minutes, Nathan Dyer delivered a perfect pass to Danny Graham who beat the Canaries’ keeper with one touch, blasting the ball into the top right corner of the goal.
Swansea City 1 – Norwich City 0
Graham almost got another goal before half time, but Norwich defender Elliott Ward managed to get a toe to the ball and blocked Graham’s shot.
Half time
Before Swansea had settled into the second half, Norwich equalised. The ball looked to be bouncing out of play. The Swans’ defenders just stood and watched as Ward ran after the ball and hooked it back into the six-yard box from the touchline. Grant Holt was the fastest to react and headed the ball down into the goal from close range.
Swansea City 1 – Norwich City 1
Less than 5 minutes later, the visitors were ahead. Pilkington got on the scoreboard after a surprising slice of luck. Elliott Bennett crossed the ball to the edge of the area from the wing. Pilkington decided to try to blast the ball home from just inside the area. It looked like his shot was going wide when luck (in the form of Swansea defender Neil Taylor) intervened. The low shot deflected off Taylor’s boot, and ricocheted* past the wrong-footed keeper into the Swansea goal.
Swansea City 1 – Norwich City 2
Scott Sinclair tried to put the score level for Swansea two minutes later with a header from close range. Unfortunately for the home fans, he couldn’t keep the ball down and his effort cleared the crossbar.
Norwich started to look in control of the match. Each attack took the home team’s defence apart. Inevitably, they broke through the Swans defences and scored again. Bennett made the final pass to an unmarked Holt who slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal from close range.
Swansea City 1 – Norwich City 3
Swansea appeared stunned and it took all they had to shut down the Canaries strikers. Michel Vorm made two remarkable saves. The Dutchman denied Kyle Naughton’s powerful drive and substitute Wes Hoolahan's shot.
After 85 minutes, the home side were awarded a penalty for an unfair challenge on Ashley Williams by Grant Holt. Danny Graham stepped up to the spot and scored his 12th goal of the season for Swansea.
Swansea City 2 – Norwich City 3
In injury time, Graham was gifted an opportunity to equalise, but he failed to take advantage and the visitors took the three points home with them and now stand in 8th place in the league.
Full time
*ricocheted - this word is normally used to describe the action of a bullet from a gun, when it bounces off something. It is pronounced /'rɪkəʃeɪd/.
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