Norwich 2 – 1 Plymouth
Norwich maintained their Sky Bet Championship play-off push as they saw off plucky Plymouth 2-1 to make it seven successive home wins in the league.
The struggling visitors stunned the Canaries by taking in the lead after 10 minutes as Morgan Whittaker headed home his 20th goal of the season.
But David Wagner’s side, who had lost 6-2 at Plymouth earlier in the season, responded well to the setback and two goals in seven second-half minutes, from top scorer Josh Sargent and an Ashley Phillips own goal, settled a hard-fought encounter in which the relegation threatened Pilgrims played their part.
Plymouth found themselves on the backfoot from the off but managed to take the lead from their first attack.
An impressive switch in play from Alfie Devine allowed Matthew Sorinola to make ground down the right flank before crossing for Whittaker to find the bottom corner with a powerful header.
Norwich had a chance to hit back a few minutes later when Sargent burst through but a superb last-ditch block from Phillips snuffed out the danger.
Sargent later hit the post with a deflected drive from a Gabriel Sara corner, while on the stroke of half-time Borja Sainz got to the byline, only to fail to pick out an unmarked Sargent, who would have had a simple tap-in.
Plymouth were largely on the defensive, although they nearly made it 2-0 after 37 minutes when Ryan Hardie skipped past keeper Angus Gunn only to miss the target from a narrow angle.
Norwich continued to dominate after the break and deservedly got back on level terms after 67 minutes from a clever short corner routine.
Substitute Christian Fassnacht picked out the deep lying Sargent with a low delivery and the United States international had the space to sweep home his 14th goal of the season.
The Canaries now had the bit between their teeth and seven minutes later took the lead from another corner.
This time Sara took it and his conventional delivery was headed goalwards by Sam McCallum, with Argyle defender Phillips then inadvertently deflecting the ball home from close range.
Gunn produced an excellent block to foil Hardie as Plymouth pressed for an equaliser before an audacious 30-yard free-kick from Sara hit the underside of the crossbar, with Fassnacht’s follow-up header going just over.
The managers
Norwich’s David Wagner:
To follow…
Plymouth’s Ian Foster:
To follow…
