Sunday 15 February 2015 16:56, UK
Norwich's promotion challenge continued to gather pace as they downed Wolves 2-0 at Carrow Road to make it three straight wins in the Sky Bet Championship.
Goals in either half from Bradley Johnson and Lewis Grabban earned the Canaries a deserved success as the side immediately below them in the table offered no real threat all afternoon.
In contrast, Alex Neil's in-form side are now back in the top six for the first time in 2015 and appear to have all the ingredients necessary to stay there - and maybe even challenge for an automatic promotion place.
Norwich started the game between the teams in seventh and eighth firmly on the front foot but there were no efforts on goal until the 10th minute when Nathan Redmond cut inside and fired a shot just over the bar.
Wolves seemed content to soak up the early pressure while hitting the Canaries on the counter-attack and as the game passed the 20-minute mark neither keeper had been tested.
Johnson then headed over after good work on the right by Grabban while Jonny Howson shot straight at Tomasz Kuszczak as the hosts continued to have the better of it.
And it was no surprise when they went in front in the 28th minute when Johnson muscled in to nod home Redmond's corner to take his seasonal tally from midfield up to an impressive eight.
As a scrappy half drew to a close a good block from visiting defender Danny Batth denied Martin Olsson while at the other end Wolves finally recorded their first effort on goal, with John Ruddy comfortably gathering a tame effort from Bakary Sako.
The pattern of the game did not change in the early stages of the second period, with Norwich continuing to have the majority of possession. and it needed a good full-length save from Kuszczak to keep out a low strike from Grabban.
Wolves needed to start posing a threat or they would be going home empty-handed and an impressive surge down the right from full-back Dominic Iorfa on the hour mark, which came to nothing, suggested they might have something up their sleeve.
But it was Norwich who got the game's second goal on 66 minutes to take a vice-like grip on proceedings.
Alex Tettey found the overlapping Olsson on the left with a perfectly weighted pass and when the Swede produced a great low cross all Grabban had to do was tap the ball home from close range.
The visitors, unbeaten in six away games before this match, were now firmly up against it and could have few complaints after failing to muster a single decent opening in what was a big promotion clash.
Indeed Norwich could have made it 3-0 on 78 minutes with Kuszczak making another fine stop to tip Grabban's goal-bound effort around the post.
