A valiant Rovers performance was worthy of their second draw in a row, as a late Sam Gallagher header denied Premier League-bound Norwich City their 10th consecutive league victory.
After Rovers were forced to settle for a goalless draw against Bristol City in midweek, Tony Mowbray made three changes to the side, prior to their fixture against league leaders, Norwich City, with one being enforced due to injury. Bradley Johnson, Harvey Elliott and Adam Armstrong – who was again suffering from hamstring issues – were the three outgoings from the side, with Northern Ireland-bound Corry Evans, John Buckley and Tyrhys Dolan replacing them. John Buckley and Lewis Holtby were racking up half a century of games each, as the youngster hit 50 senior career appearances, whilst the German marked 50 Rovers league appearances.
After both teams emerged from the tunnel and readied themselves for kick-off, it was Rovers who won the coin toss and got the game started as they looked to try and get themselves back to winning ways and try and claim the division’s biggest scalp.
From the kick-off, Rovers started brightly as they managed to force a shot at goal inside the opening 60 seconds as John Buckley weaved his way into the Norwich final third before trying his luck from just outside the box. Despite Rovers doing well to get Buckley into a shooting position, the midfielder’s effort lacked the power and conviction to test Tim Krul, who smothered the ball with ease.
It was almost déjà vu in the 5th minute as Buckley again managed to create a shooting opportunity, this time following a pass from Tyrhys Dolan, but Dutchman Krul again managed to produce a comfortable save to deny the youngster.
From the Krul save, Norwich were able to build and attack and get themselves up the other end of the field where Todd Cantwell took control before eyeing up goal with a strike from distance. Despite his attempt seeming true, the ball deflected off of Darragh Lenihan before wrong-footing Thomas Kaminski and going behind via the post, before the resulting corner was well cleared by Rovers.
The liveliness to the game continued as it was Rovers’ turn to strike in the 9th minute after a short corner saw Joe Rothwell try and recreate his 2018-19 Goal of the Season winner, which came at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest, yet the attempt lacked the same accuracy, whip and dip as it swayed off-target.
Rovers’ confidence grew as they continued to be given chance after chance by Norwich and that again saw Rovers burst in on goal in the 12th minute as a Lewis Holtby cross saw him pick out Joe Rankin-Costello whose header lacked the power required to beat Tim Krul, who saved.
Norwich were on the ropes in the 17th minute as Rovers again stormed forward with Rankin-Costello. The full-back delivered in a delicious cross straight to the feet of Dolan who virtually had a tap-in, but former Rover Grant Hanley was on-hand to deny his old side the lead as he threw himself in-front of the shot to make a last-gasp clearance.
Norwich were forced into an early change after half-an-hour after Dimitris Giannoulis was deemed unable to continue after suffering a head injury. He was soon replaced by Jacob Sørensen.
Four minutes after the change, Rovers’ attacking impetus continued in the game as Rankin-Costello continued to show his worth. The youngster again did well to break down the right and put in a cross that was only cleared as far as Corry Evans. The Northern Irishman, who will be linking up with his nation during the upcoming break, did well to control the ball before releasing a half-volley from 25-yards that tested Krul, but the Dutchman ultimately kept the ball within his grasp without spilling to the Rovers forwards.
Two minutes later and Thomas Kaminski was called into action down at the other end in this end-to-end contest. The Belgian, who will also be joining up with his national team next week, was forced into a fine tip onto the crossbar as he denied Emiliano Buendía from close-range.
As half-time approached, referee Keith Stroud allocated an extra three minutes of time onto the end of the rather exciting half.
Despite the good first-half display, however, added time at the end of the first period brought no noteworthy event, as the first 45 minutes of the game were soon ended.
Canaries boss Daniel Farke would have been quite frustrated with the lack of fluency from his team as they never really looked like cutting Rovers open, despite having a couple of attempts crash off the woodwork. The home side, who had only lost one at home all season, would have been trying to use the half-time break in order to regroup and recalibrate their eye for goal in order to try and get the elusive tenth consecutive win which would have helped continue their promotion push.
Tony Mowbray would have definitely been the happier of the two managers at the break as he had seen his side take the game to the division’s best side, who themselves believed, that they already had one foot in the Premier League. Rovers had come to Carrow Road and put in a first period display that many neutrals would have applauded and would have been left scratching their head if told that this was the same side who had only won one game from their past ten. The gaffer would have been hoping that same level of intensity continued into the second-half, against a side who had only conceded nine home goals in the league all season.
After both sides returned to the field of play for the second period, it was the Canaries who got the second 45 minute underway as they looked to try and assert their dominance and make their home advantage count.
Although Norwich got the game back underway, it was Rovers – like in the first period – who got the first chance of the half. Darragh Lenihan found Rankin-Costello who in-turn put in a fantastic cross towards Dolan who was lurking at the far-post, but the winger was soon pickpocketed by Max Aarons who cleared the immediate danger behind for a corner, which Lenihan soon connected with, but the Republic of Ireland international was unable to keep his nod down.
Norwich threatened the Rovers goal in the 53rd minute but were denied by a fantastic save from Thomas Kaminski, after Teemu Pukki was unleashed in the Rovers half. A fantastic long ball by on-loan Burnley defender Ben Gibson was plucked out of the sky by the Finnish finisher who managed to close down on goal and try slotting the ball home on his left-foot, yet it was Kaminski’s own boot that denied Pukki his 23rd goal of the season as the Belgian produced a fine save and was forced to concede a corner which Rovers soon dealt with.
Almost from nothing, however, Norwich soon managed to grab the goal that came almost guaranteed with a game at Carrow Road, this season as Kenny McLean grabbed his first league goal in Norfolk since Norwich City’s historic 3-2 victory over Manchester City, which came during the first-half of last season’s Premier League. After being slipped through in the 54th minute, McLean played a one-two with Buendía, as the Scot snuck in-behind Taylor Harwood-Bellis before receiving the return pass on the turn before finding the bottom left-hand corner of the net, past a despairing Kaminski to put the Canaries ahead at 1-0.
That Pukki chance, followed by the goal stunned Rovers a bit, as the game’s next opportunity also came to the hosts some nine minutes later. Max Aarons did well to skip beyond Barry Douglas before finding Buendía with a cross, but his header looped over the bar.
The change in emphasis in the play sparked a double change from Tony Mowbray in the 64th minute as he introduced Sam Gallagher and Harvey Elliott for John Buckley and Ben Brereton in an attempt to try and shift the balance of play back in Rovers’ favour as it had been for most of the first period.
A minute after the changes, Lenihan found himself with his head in his hands as despite getting on the end of and connecting well with a Barry Douglas free-kick, the Rovers captain could only find the side-netting, despite the ball looking like it had crept in, on some angles.
Norwich’s second change of the game was soon made in the 67th minute as Marco Stiepermann returned from three months out with an injury to replace Kieran Dowell.
Rovers soon made another double change on the 70th minute as Stewart Downing and former Norwich boy, Elliott Bennett soon came on to replace Joe Rankin-Costello and Corry Evans.
13 minutes after being introduced, Tony Mowbray’s first changes of the day showed their impact as they both combined to get Rovers back into the game as the Blues notched their first goal in two games, since Bradley Dack’s opener against Swansea City, which came 11 days ago. After Rovers earnt a free-kick on the right-wing, Harvey Elliott’s delivery towards the back-post proved pinpoint as Sam Gallagher charged in before getting the better of a couple of Norwich defenders and heading past the stranded Tim Krul in order to level proceedings at 1-1.
After a Norwich corner which saw Ben Gibson tumble off the pitch, whilst twisting his ankle in the process after his back-post attempt was put wide, a lengthy period of treatment behind the Rovers goal saw Christoph Zimmerman replace him in the 83rd minute after the former Middlesbrough defender was stretchered down the tunnel from behind the net.
Rovers’ final change of the day wasn’t far behind as another former Canary in Bradley Johnson was introduced in-place of Lewis Holtby, as Rovers looked to try and shut up shop during the final five minutes.
The 86th minute saw Darragh Lenihan use every once of pace and energy left in his body as he did well to stop Pukki putting Norwich back ahead.
Stewart Downing tried his luck from range in the 88th minute, but the 36-year old wasn’t able to conjure up some magic as he scuffed the shot.
Elliott and Gallagher again combined in the 89th minute as the former found the latter who managed to chip Krul who found himself in No Man’s Land, yet substitute Zimmermann had recovered well to clear the ball before Gallagher could round Krul.
As Keith Stroud called for four minutes of added time to be added onto the end of the half, Buendía managed to test Kaminski once more, but the Belgian was determined to keep his side in the game as he again denied the Argentine.
With time almost up, both sides decided to open the game up into an end-to-end battle in the 93rd minute as both teams threw the kitchen sink at each other. First came Joe Rothwell who managed to weave his way through a couple of Norwich bodies before having his shot blocked in the area. From that block, Norwich sprung forwards on the counter-attack as Pukki was found up the other end of the field, but sadly for the Canaries, it wasn’t to be their day as the Fin’s touch let him down before Rovers cleared, as the full-time whistle was soon blown.
Although Rovers still find themselves with one win in eleven – which came against Millwall – this game highlighted everything that Tony Mowbray has been talking about in recent weeks when it comes to believing in the process. His side proved more than capable – as they have shown many times this season – of going toe-to-toe with the division’s best sides and yet, they’ve mostly found themselves out of luck or depleted with injuries. Today, however proved how well Rovers are able to play when their squad is near full fitness. Whilst Rovers weren’t able to hand Norwich their second home loss of the season, they left their mark on the home side and picked up a lot of plaudits from Norwich fans, media staff and neutrals, which is a very encouraging sign for the Blues.
Despite the good result on paper, Rovers’ league standings haven’t changed much, with only their points tally being altered as they remained in 15th place with a +8-goal difference, despite moving up to 46 points.
With this being the final game prior to the final international break of the season, Rovers are now on pause until Good Friday (2nd April) where they will return to action against Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park, where kick-off is scheduled for 3pm. After that tie, Tony Mowbray’s men return to Ewood Park to play hosts to Jonathan Woodgate’s Bournemouth on Easter Monday (5th April at 3pm). Once those Easter fixtures are complete, Rovers jump back on the bus for a long trip to Wales as the fixture list takes them to the Cardiff City Stadium, where they will battle with Mick McCarthy’s Bluebirds on Saturday 10th April at 3pm.
