Norwich City vs Bolton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance25,475.
Saturday 24 February 2018 18:51, UK
Norwich shared the points for the fourth game in succession as Bolton came away from Carrow Road with a hard-earned goalless draw.
The hosts dominated for long spells, particularly in the first half, but could find no way through a well-organised defence.
German midfielder Moritz Leitner wasted their best chance just before half-time when he dragged the ball wide in a one-on-one with the keeper - and they could not find a dramatic late goal as they had in their previous two games against Ipswich and Wolves. Bolton were threatened, but will be well pleased with a point in their battle against the drop.
Norwich completely dominated the first half and it was scarcely believable that the two sides went in at half-time on level terms. Right from the word go it was one-way traffic towards the Bolton goal and it was not long before the chances started to come for the hosts.
The impressive James Maddison had the first clear opportunity in the 20th minute, firing in a rising drive that stung Ben Alnwick's palms and it then took a superb last-ditch tackle from David Wheater to deny Josh Murphy what looked like a certain goal.
Alnwick made another good stop to push a Nelson Oliveira shot around the post before the best chance of the half in the 37th minute.
Leitner was put clean through following a slick move involving Harrison Reed and Oliveira but fluffed the opportunity of opening his account for Norwich by shooting weakly wide.
The one-sided nature of proceedings continued right up to the half-time whistle as an excellent block from Dorian Devite kept out another goal-bound effort from Maddison.
Adam le Fondre had sent a glancing header just wide midway through the half for the visitors, while Sammy Ameobi fired an acrobatic effort well off target just before the break, but those were rare moments of concern for an underworked Angus Gunn.
It was a similar story as the second period got under way, with Maddison quickly flashing a shot cross the face of the area that took a deflection and went out for a corner.
The all-action midfielder then tried his luck for further out after Darren Pratley carelessly gave away possession but Alnwick made a comfortable save.
Bolton briefly threatened as the game passed the hour mark, with the hosts having to clear hurriedly when Gunn spilt a cross from Antonee Robinson, while Kem Karacan's speculative effort was deflected just over.
But Norwich were generally on the front foot and with 13 minutes to go Harrison's first-time effort looked to going in until being blocked by his own colleague Leitner.
It was the home side's last clear chance as Bolton held on for a hard-earned point, with Norwich boss Daniel Farke being sent to the stands deep into injury time for angrily kicking the ball away after Leitner had been penalised for a foul throw.
Daniel Farke: "It is unbelievable that we didn't win that game. I thought it was probably our best home performance of the season. We were outstanding in defence, outstanding in possession and outstanding in creating chances. But you can't win a game if you don't score a goal and it was extremely frustrating. It felt a lot different to the draws against Ipswich and Wolves, that's for sure.
"It's not even that we created one or two chances. In the first half we had at least five 100-per-cent chances and could easily have been four or five up. It is a disappointing result but I can't be too critical of the lads because they played really well."
Phil Parkinson: "That was a proper shift from the lads. It is the sort of effort you are looking for from your players when you are on your travels, especially against a good team like Norwich. We were put under a lot of pressure in the first half because they were finding a lot of space but he had a word about that at half-time and adapted really well in the second half. We restricted them and had one or two moments ourselves which might have produced a goal.
"But I am delighted we have come away with something to show for our efforts. We had an important win against Sunderland in midweek and it's great that we have backed that up with a point today."
