Robin Sainty: Norwich City at another tricky junction

Saturday’s game against Birmingham had all the hallmarks of a crossroads in the season, with City coming off a run of four defeats in five in all competitions, but the performance that the Canaries produced was enough to see off a side who had clearly come with little ambition other than to take home a point.

While the first half won’t live long in the memory, the way in which the home side upped the tempo after the break was impressive and Birmingham had no answers as Gabriel Sara and Jon Rowe, neither of whom has been at their best in recent games, ensured that City would take the points.

However, as has so often been the case this season, the tempo dropped after a series of substitutions and better opponents might have made more of the opportunities which came Birmingham’s way, with Angus Gunn forced into a superb close-range block and Ben Gibson and Adam Forshaw lucky to get away with some suicidal passing on the edge of their box, something that the latter would be involved in again at Swansea.

Add in the free header in City’s six-yard box which dropped over the bar in the closing minutes and the visitors might have nicked something from a game in which they had been comprehensively outplayed.

An all-too-familiar story - this time Swansea are the hosts with the most (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

Three welcome points and a clean sheet may have served to obscure City’s tendency to offer opportunities to opponents, but it was brought back into sharp focus within the opening minutes at Swansea as Shane Duffy’s awful pass left Forshaw high and dry and gifted the struggling hosts a dream start.

In a scrappy first half in which both sides seemed to be competing to see who could give the ball away the most, City once again seemed lethargic and lacking in ideas, so Sara’s equaliser came as something of a surprise.

However, after the break, City looked the more likely winners but showed no composure in and around the Swansea box, a situation exemplified by Przemyslaw Placheta getting to the byline but blasting the ball at Adam Idah’s head with his wrong foot from close range.

Once again City were architects of their own downfall as they invited pressure by continuing to overplay around their own box.

Having been saved by Gunn’s outstanding save and the linesman’s flag followed by a desperate goal-line block by Duffy, a series of errors which started with Christian Fassnacht dribbling himself into trouble just outside City’s penalty area when a good old-fashioned foot through the ball seemed the obvious option and ended with Placheta’s inability to control a dropping ball when under no pressure resulting in the corner, eventually produced Swansea’s winner.

The loss was hard to take, more so because this was the worst Swansea side that I’ve seen for many a season.

The season could well start to unravel with another defeat today, so everyone will be looking for a greatly-improved performance, but there are worrying signs aplenty at present.

I always try to avoid extremes of optimism or pessimism, but it’s becoming increasingly hard to avoid the conclusion that a City side containing Josh Sargent and Ashley Barnes is very good, but one lacking both is rather mediocre.

I’m sure that David Wagner must be incredibly frustrated to be without both his first-choice strikers for such a long period, but the reality is that he has somehow got to find a way to keep City sufficiently in touch with the play-off spots to ensure that when they do return the season isn’t already over for the Canaries.

That means others stepping up to the plate, and at present that isn’t happening with enough consistency. It could be a long few weeks for all of us.