Norwich City 1-1 Bristol Rovers: Davitt FA Cup pointers

1. Magic of the cup

Different competition, but no less a game to endure at Carrow Road as that soporific encounter on New Year’s Day against Southampton in the Championship.

David Wagner and his much-changed Norwich City even got the start they would have wanted against the League One visitors when Ashley Barnes slotted from Onel Hernandez’s cutback. But Bristol Rovers deservedly levelled five minutes later through Grant Ward.

Only George Long’s dexterity and the woodwork denied Bristol a second prior to the break. Adam Idah’s introduction briefly pepped up the hosts. But by the end it was more frustration, more vocal barbs bowled in the direction of Wagner.

Norwich have only been past the third round of the FA Cup three times since 2013. They will have to now navigate a long-haul trip to Bristol to improve that record.

But cup progress is incidental to the bigger picture. Norwich remain locked in this holding pattern cycle until sporting director Ben Knapper decides time is up for the current head coach, and his preferred replacement can be sourced and enticed to Carrow Road for what feels increasingly a large-scale rebuild.

Continue down this path in the immediate term and the clamour simply to look for an internal candidate to hold the fort will increasingly look a preferable option to this version of footballing purgatory.

2. Friends reunited

The Josh Sargent and Ashley Barnes double act was foot perfect in the first four Championship wins the duo started together. Culminating, alas, in that 4-0 romp at Huddersfield in August that dissolved the partnership, due to Sargent’s ankle injury for the intervening period.

An FA Cup outing against League One opponents was an opportunity for Wagner to put the band back together. No question the duo had the makings of an effective attacking spearhead in those early, optimistic forays this campaign.

While out of possession the athleticism and the nous underpinning their pressing from the front afforded City far more promising moments in transition higher up the park. Recall that entertaining 4-4 Championship tussle at Southampton, and then contrast with the anaemic return on New Year’s Day at Carrow Road.

Barnes has looked a much less effective focal point shorn of Sargent.

You saw one glimmer of that telepathy in the 36th minute against Rovers, when Barnes turned and rolled an instant reverse pass into the channel for the surging American. Sargent opted to square up his marker and return the favour, but Barnes’ cross was blocked for a corner.

Sargent, wisely after his lay-off, did not return the other side of the half-time interval. He is too precious a commodity to be risked.

His prolonged absence dealt a serious blow to Wagner’s bid to build on solid early-season foundations. But it is not only the forward’s return or his goals, it could be the galvanising impact on Barnes within the German’s overall strategy.

3. What next for Adam?

Sargent was replaced by Idah for the second half. Within seconds he was twisting inside the area, but lost his footing as he tried to test Matthew Cox from Borja Sainz’s slip pass.

Barely five minutes later the Irishman’s clever penalty box movement worked a clear opening six yards out, but Onel Hernandez’s cross evaded his desperate lunge.

Then there was another near miss just before the hour mark, when he controlled Liam Gibbs’ pass and smacked a low right footed shot wide from 18 yards before finally rifling over in stoppage time on the turn.

Perhaps a body of work that encapsulated his Norwich career to date. Real promise but not the productivity to ensure he is a standout feature of the starting line up.

Almost four years to the day Idah announced himself as a goalscoring prospect with a hat-trick at Preston in a 4-2 FA Cup third round romp. A Premier League start came at Manchester United of all places the following week.

Ironically, that curtailed a proposed loan move to Doncaster. In the intervening years the 22-year-old has found himself in that frustrating slot of too valuable to loan out, but not valuable enough to dislodge any number of strikers. Albeit shifting Teemu Pukki in his prime would have proved a high bar for any rival.

Now with Sargent back, Idah may have found himself further down the pecking order. Especially as Wagner clearly values the experience of a Barnes or even a Hwang Ui-Jo.

But the German's post-match revelation Hwang has suffered a hamstring injury that will sideline him for six weeks might offer Idah a glimmer of renewed hope. 

The Cork man's goals from the bench have been invaluable to Wagner and Norwich this season.

But Idah will clearly want to shed any ‘super sub’ tag. He needs to be playing regularly, and if it is not here under this head coach then maybe that long overdue loan is the option of choice.

4. Under lock and key

Talking of trading windows, expect the majority of City’s planned work shaped by Knapper this coming month to be as much about the future beyond this season, as some instant quick-fix of gratification.

There is neither the finances nor the inclination, nor perhaps the player availability for where Norwich City find themselves in the football food chain, to make waves designed to radically overhaul Wagner’s current personnel.

The departure on loan of some of the club’s best younger talent, in a bid to prove themselves in the lower reaches of the Football League, is well underway. But Norwich is actively weighing up whether to bolster a defensive midfield department which saw two of the supporting cast get a rare run out on FA Cup duty.

Liam Gibbs partnered Adam Forshaw, with the likes of Gabby Sara, Marcelino Nunez and Kenny McLean getting the day off.

Wagner also introduced Jacob Sorensen for the final quarter, as the Dane made his belated seasonal re-appearance after surgeries related to a pelvic issue.

City clearly have the numbers, but serious questions persist whether they have the profile of holding player to both protect, and help unlock, the genuine attacking potential in a squad that can call on players with the threat level of Sainz and Jon Rowe behind Sargent.

Norwich’s name was mooted in some quarters the north-west as a potential suitor for Blackburn’s Lewis Travers, prior to his loan move in recent days to their East Anglian rivals.

The coming weeks will tell us not only how persuasive Knapper can be, but how good his contacts’ book is.