Norwich City 2 Manchester City 0

Last Updated : 18-Aug-2001 by
No-one can say today's result was a fluke - the team gave it their all in a fast-paced game and were always pushing forward, never really allowing Man City the time to build many attacks.

A hugely competitive match saw seven players booked, four players go off injured (only one was ours - Chris Llewellyn) and Paulo "shirt-puller" Wanchope sent off at the death for a second bookable offence after a rash challenge on Darren Kenton.

The atmosphere was fantastic, the Man City fans totally filling their seat allocation and overflowing into the South Stand and River End as well. They started off chanting non-stop, but as the game went on and they realised this wasn't going to be the easy victory they had been expecting, they quietened down and were out-sung by the Barclay and Snakepit (good effort lads).

Onto the match... the first half was punctuated by injuries, with Chris Llewellyn being the first to go; he was stretchered off in the 15th minute with a foot injury, while for the Mancs Eyal Berkovich was also stretchered off and keeper Carlo Nash was forced to retire with supected broken ribs.

A lively first period saw Wanchope go close twice for the visitors, his 11th minute shot curling just wide of the post and then a looping header from captain Stuart Pearce's cross was brilliantly saved by Robert Green.

For City the busy Zema Abbey shot just high and wide from 25 yards in the 13th minute and then, after a shot from skipper Iwan Roberts was blocked, Darel Russell brought a good save from substitute keeper Nicky Weaver in the 34th minute.
Norwich also came close through McVeigh whose chip over Weaver was cleared off the line by former England man Stuart Pearce.

Man City started in more determined fashion after the break but suffered a further injury blow when substitute Jeff Whitley sustained a suspected broken ankle following a challenge with Darel Russell, for which he recived a yellow card.

In the 73rd minute Marc Libbra came on for captain Iwan Roberts for his competitive debut and immediately broke the deadlock in stunning fashion - Green's deep free kick was flicked on by Abbey and there he was, lobbing the ball over his marker before lashing home from 10 yards with only his second touch of the ball, 11 seconds after coming on! LIIIIBBRA! LIIIIBBRA!

The determined Canaries resisted fierce pressure from the visitors before Abbey fed the ball to Mulryne, who crossed low for Paul McVeigh to collect and fire the ball low into the far corner for the second goal two minutes from time.

There was still more drama to come, firstly as Paulo Wanchope was sent off after a heavy tackle on Kenton in the 89th minute and then Green capped a fine display with a diving injury time save to deny Kevin Horlock.

Fantastic game, fantasic result. Keep it up lads!