Rampant City put four past lowly Leyton Orient

Norwich City 4   Leyton Orient 0
 
Canary fans saw some very entertaining football, but had to be patient
before their team finally got the victory over Orient their dominance
deserved.
 
After being frusrated by the O's for 74 minutes, the game burst into life
when substitute Chris Martin provided the kind of finish, which had
had not been in his team mates repertoire until he struck. Well taken
goals from Grant Holt, Michael Spillane and Jamie Cureton soon followed
to give the scoreline an appearance that by no means flattered the Canaries.
 
Now into his ninth game in charge, Paul Lambert’s preferred starting
line-up is beginning to take shape, but  he made three changes and
only one of those was by choice, opting for the more experienced Paul
McVeigh on the right wing instead of Luke Daley.
 
Declan Rudd deservedly kept his place in goal after making an
impressive substitute debut, in which he did more than simply fill in for
Fraser Forster, after his harsh red card at Gillingham on Saturday.
 
The City manager probably surprised many fans by recalling Gary
Doherty to partner Jens Berthel Askou in central defence. This not only
allowed Spillane to move across to replace the injured Ostemobor at
right back, it showed that Lambert does not hesitate to make changes
based purely on what is in the best interests of the football club!
 
For the visitors, former Ipswich and Colchester midfielder, Geraint
Williams, named four players with  Norwich City connections. Striker
Ryan Jarvis and Andrew Cave-Brown are Academy graduates; Jimmy
Smith was on loan at Carrow Road from Chelsea and Jamie Scowcroft
who so often tormented the Canaries when with local rivals, Ipswich.
 
Orient kicked off and although the home side quickly gained
possession, it was the visitors through Andros Townsend breaking down
their left, who showed the first attacking intent.
 
Then Townsend earned the game’s first corner after his angled cross
blocked. Somerfield’s resulting flag-kick was immediately cleared, but
the visitors picked up the loose ball, which debutant Rudd did well to
palm away the resulting shot and Drury completed the clearance.
 
In the ninth minute City countered through Hoolahan down the middle.
He found Grant Holt whose cross was cut out for City’s first corner.
 
However, in the twelfth minute, Orient then won another corner
and moments later Charlie Daniels unleashed a rising shot from 25 yards,
which had Rudd arching backwards as the ball rebounded off the bar.
 
Hoolahan then had the home fans on their feet in expectation
of the game’s first goal, but despite doing the hard part, skipping past
several challenges, he turned the last defender on the six-yard line and
hesitated with everyone epecting a left-foot shot, he played a square
pass to Simon Lappin whose shot was blocked.
 
Jimmy Smith, who played nine games on loan for the Canaries, was then
booked for a late tackle on Russell.
 
In the 24th minute McVeigh took a corner in front of the noisy
snake pit, which began an intensive spell of pressure on the Orient
defence, ending with the diminutative winger having a shot from the far
side, which Jamie Jones gathered safely at the near post.
 
Holt then forced Tam Mkandawire into conceding a corner , but
the O's defended much better and cleared their lines. They had to
be more alert just two minutes later as another City corner saw McVeigh
take an out-swinging kick this time. Although deep, Holt was there to
cross the ball back into the six-yard area and Spillane met it with a
solid header, but it was straight at Jones.
 
As the game entered the last ten minutes of the half, the rampant Canaries,
orchestrated by Hoolahan were breaking at will through the opposition.
They just lacked the clinical cutting edge to finish off some classy
flowing football.
 
The pulsating half ended with Norwich taking a free-kick wide on the
left after another attack was broken up by the visitors.
 
HALF TIME:   City 0  Orient 0
 
The second half continued in the same vein as before the break. Within
a minute Hoolahan had a shot blocked and then in the 47th minute, from
McVeigh’s corner, Holt’s header rebounded off Hoolahan, when a goal
looked to be on the cards!
 
Scowcroft earned a lecture as well as a booking from referee
Karl Evans in the 50th minute, after a late tackle left Spillane
flattened in his own area!
 
JJ Meligan obviously didn’t learn from his team-mate’s actions, as his
over the top tackle on Drury resulted in a straight red card.
 
Rudd, despite his young age, then dished out his own lecture after
Berthel Askou had ignored his call for the ball and conceded an
unnecessary throw-in.
 
After Melligan’s dismissal, his side responded for the next five
minutes by attempting to put their hosts under pressure. But in the
61st minute City went back on the offensive winning yet another corner!
 
They came even closer to opening the scoring in the 63rd minute after
Korey Smith’s well delivered right-wing cross was met with a thumping
downward header from Holt. But, Jones pulled off a wonderful reflex
save to push the ball around the post.
 
In the 65th minute the Orient boss made a double change, bringing off
Scowcroft and Townsend, for Scott McGliesh and Jason Demetriou.
 
Mkandawire was then penalised for shirt pulling, giving City a free-
kick just to the right of the ‘D’, but Lappin’s shot cleared the bar ,
after Lambert used the break in play to put on striker, Chris Martin
for McVeigh.
 
There was then a break in play as Jones came off worse when going for
a ball with Martin, but despite the appearance of a stretcher, the
keeper was able to carry on.
 
Within just eight minutes of being introduced Martin produced the
clinical finishing needed to give theCanaries the breakthrough they 
deserved.
A delightful interchange of passes between Smith and Hoolahan ended with
Martin released down the inside right channel and the striker
blasted a right-foot shot past Jones into the far corner of the net.
 
This opened the floodgates for City and within three minutes Drury’s
cross from the left corner flag, was well controlled on his chest by
Captain Holt, before he fired a right foot shot over the keeper's 
outsretched
left hand and into the the top corner of the net.
 
Within a further three minutes, the Canaries extended their
lead when Spillane showed a wonderful piece of individual skill, cutting in
from the right and from just inside the penalty area hit a superb left
foot shot past the diving Jones into the far corner, to score his first
senior goal for the Canaries.
 
After another spell of possession, Hoolahan cut in from the right,
skipped past the defence before finding Holt at the back of the box.
The ex-Shrewsbury striker hit a venomous shot just wide of the far
post!  That was to be his last contribution as he made way for Cureton.
 
He so nearly made it four in the second of six added minutes. He
picked up a through ball down the inside right channel but was denied
a goal when the keeper beat away his shot, with no City player on
hand to score from the rebound.
 
However, Cureton did make it 4-0 before the referee blew for full-
time, to get him off the mark this season. He ran onto another through
ball down the middle and after taking one touch placed a firm right-foot
shot past the Orient keeper's despairing dive to his left.
 
FULL TIME:  City 4 Orient 0
 
 
Line-ups:
 
City
Rudd (GK), Drury, Doherty, Berthel Askou, Spillane, Lappin, Smith,
Russell (Hughes 81), McVeigh (Martin 67), Hoolahan, Holt © (Cureton 85)
 
Unused Subs: Theoklitos (GK), Daley, Adeyemi, McDonald.
 
Leyton Orient: Jones (GK), Chorley, Mkandawire ©, Melligan, Daniels,
Jarvis, Summerfield, Cave-Brown, Smith, Scowcroft (McGleish 65),
Townsend (Demetriou 65)
 
Unused Subs: Morris (GK), Ashworth, Pires, Baker, Patulea
 
Discipline:
 
City:  No Bookings
 
Orient:
Yellow Cards: Smith (foul) 22; Scowcroft (foul) 50
Red Card: Melligan 53
 
Referee:  Mr Karl Evans
 
Attendance: 23,981