The Canaries moved to within two points of second placed Charlton,
with their eighth straight home victory.
Charlton’s home draw with Swindon, meant City’s 2-0 Boxing Day defeat
of Millwall took them to 45 points.
City’s Man of the Match Wes Hoolahan opened the scoring in the 28th
minute against the run of play, but after that there was only ever
going to be one side to win. That win was sealed by Grant Holt’s second-
half header.
Paul Lambert had been forced into making two changes with the
suspended Gary Doherty’s place taken by Russell Martin moving in from
right-back with that position taken by the recalled Jon Ostemobor.
Stephen Hughes, after his impact in last week’s 3-0 home thumping of
Huddersfield, started in place of Tom Adeyemi, who dropped to the
bench.
For the visitors Kenny Jackett was denied the services of the
suspended Jack Smith, who like Doherty picked up his fifth booking in
their previous game, but had a ready made replacement in Tony Craig.
Also suspended was Dave Martin, but Jimmy Abdou did play after his red
card at Charlton was overturned.
Millwall kicked off and were the first to threaten with Danny
Schofield getting in behind the re-shuffled City defence. Fraser
Forster stood up well to palm away his shot.
Then in the 6th minute Lewis Grabban stole into the City area from
midfield, but could only put his shot over the bar.
The Lions kept up the early pressure, winning the game’s first corner,
but Forster safely plucked Marc laird’s kick out of the air.
The Canaries earned a free-kick in the 13th minute, much to ironic
cheers from the home crowd. Although the visitors struggled to deal
with the City pressure that followed, they did eventually do enough to
move back on the offensive.
Yet again in the 18th minute the City defence gave Millwall far too
much time. Andy Frampton’s cross appeared to be handled by Michael
Nelson, but the alert referee Graham Salisbury saw a push in his back.
Following a 19th minute Millwall corner, which Lappin had headed clear
at the near post, Danny Schofield regained possession for the Lions. He
cut the ball back for Ali Fuseini, who should really have done better
from 12 yards out than side foot his effort over the bar.
In a topsy-turvy game Grant Holt then had the ball in the back of the
Millwall net after being set up by Chris Martin, although the Assistant
Referee’s flag had gone up for offside, as the ball left the City
striker’s boot.
This however, seemed to be the waking up point for City, for in the
next minute, they won their first corner. Hoolahan struck Lappin’s
delivery perfectly, but David Forde in the visitor’s goal produced a
stunning one handed save to his left to deny what looked like a certain
goal.
The Assistant Referee’s flag for offside then denied Chris Martin what
would have been a superb effort cutting in from the right hand side,
but who was offside was a mystery!
It was third time lucky for the Canaries in the 28th minute as they
took an unlikely lead after they had been distinctly second best to
Jackett’s Millwall. It owed much to Darel Russell in the middle who set
Ostemobor away down the right. The right-back, who up until that point
had been struggling to keep pace with the game fired in a low cross
that
Hoolahan gleefully smashed past Forde, for his 13th goal of the
season.
As the half drew to a close, Hoolahan tried an audacious attempt at
goal from just inside the Millwall half. But his strike from a free-
kick wide on the right was just the wrong side of the right hand
upright.
HALF TIME: City 1 Millwall 0
There was a surprise substitution at the start of the second half with
Darel Russell replaced by Norwich-born Matt Gill.
Despite a blatant block on Holt in the 55th minute, Dunne escaped with
just a few words from the Ref. Nelson headed over Lappin’s resulting
free-kick.
Hoolahan was crudely upended on the half way line by Dunne and from
Drury’s 60th minute free-kick, Hughes latched onto the knock-down but
his shot lacked power.
City then made their second change with the injured Hughes replaced by
Academy graduate Tom Adeyemi.
Dunne made one foul too many in the 65th minute, with the latest on
Holt earning him the game’s only booking.
City took the match by the scruff of the neck as it threatened to
become disjointed by fouls and substitutions, taking a deserved 2-0
lead.
Although it was Holt whose low header at the far post beat the diving
Forde, it was Hoolahan’s unselfishness that enabled the ex-Shrewsbury
striker to reach the 20-goal milestone before the end of 2009. Chris
Martin fed the in-form Irishman on the left, before he cut in to
astutely set up the unmarked Holt on the right.
The Millwall boss made a double change, bringing on the fresh legs of
Adam Bolder and Jason Price, in place of Fuseini and Grabban.
Hoolahan then stole in behind Millwall’s offside trap to earn a corner
off a defender. Although initially cleared, the Canaries came back
with Nelson sliding in at the far post to get the ball into the net,
only for the Assistant Referee’s offside flag to go up again.
In the 77th minute, Millwall made their final change with Scott Barron
coming on for Frampton.
Holt’s 80th minute driven cross from the right, evaded everybody on
the 6-yard line with Chris Martin inches away from making contact with
the ball.
City’s midfield maestro Hoolahan received a standing ovation in the
85th minute as he left to be replaced by the on-loan Anthony McNamee.
In the penultimate minute of normal time, Abdou could only direct his
shot straight at Forster and as the game entered 3 minutes of extra
time, Millwall failed to capitalise on successive corners.
FULL-TIME: City 2 Millwall 0
Line-ups:
City:
Forster, Drury, Nelson, Martin, Ostemobor, Holt ©, Hoolahan (McNamee
85), Hughes (Adeyemi 61), Lappin, Russell (Gill 46)
Unused Subs: Steer (gk), McDonald, Kelly, Dawkin
Millwall:
Forde (GK), Dunne, Frampton (Barron 77), Robinson ©, Schofield,
Grabban (Price 70), Craig, Morison, Fuseini (Bolder 70), Laird, Abdou
Unused Subs: Sullivan (GK), Hackett, Ward, Grimes.
Goals:
City: Hoolahan (28), Holt (66)
Millwall: None
Discipline:
City: None
Huddersfield: Yellow cards: Dunne (65)
Referee: Mr Graham Salisbury
Attendance: 25,242