Norwich City 5 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2

Last updated : 21 October 2008 By Footymad Previewer
Leroy Lita showed just why Glenn Roeder had acquired his services by scoring a classy hat-trick as Norwich City knocked Wolves off top spot with an impressive 5-2 victory.

The home side kicked off attacking the Barclay End goal and only a foul by Carl Ikeme on Antoine Sibierski denied the Frenchman an early shot on goal.

The resulting free kick from Sammy Clingan went wide.

In the 12th minute Ikeme rescued Wolves with an acrobatic save to keep out a long-range drive from Elliot Omozusi.

Two minutes later Lee Croft gave the Wolves keeper an easier task by firing straight at him.

At the other end David Marshall did well to keep out a deflected shot from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

Norwich went ahead when Ikeme held on to Clingan's inswinging free-kick from the left wing, but carried the ball over the goal-line before releasing it.

Wes Hoolahan's 25-yard drive cleared the bar by inches before Norwich doubled their lead when Lita beat Karl Henry and scored with a low angled right-foot shot.

Within two minutes Wolves pulled a goal back when Neill Collins got his head to a right-wing corner from Carlos Edwards to beat Marshall from six yards.

Early in the second half Chris Iwelumo fired wide and Gary Doherty did well to block Michael Kightly's shot.

A weak header from Carlos Edwards fell to Lita just inside the Wolves penalty area and he calmly lobbed the ball over Ikeme with the outside of his right boot.

Once again Wolves pulled a goal back, this time from the penalty spot. Ebanks-Blake was tripped by Hoolahan and his right-foot spot-kick beat Marshall low to his right.

Richard Stearman was sent off for a second bookable offence on Lita and when Clingan swung in the resulting free-kick from the City left, Lita's glancing header went in at the far post.

Croft won the ball on the halfway line and fed Lita. When his shot came back off a post, Croft finished the move with a low right-foot shot from 12 yards.

Substitute David Jones rattled the Norwich crossbar with a free-kick in the dying minutes, but the Canaries fully deserved their emphatic victory.