Norwich City 2-0 Huddersfield Town: Sam McCallum and Borja Sainz net in Canaries win

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Huddersfield Town at Carrow Road on Saturday | Sam McCallum and Borja Sainz net in simply victory for Canaries.

Saturday 23 December 2023 18:38, UK

Norwich moved to within two points of the Championship play-off zone with a comfortable 2-0 win over lowly Huddersfield at Carrow Road.

The Canaries were dominant throughout and finally made their superiority count with second-half goals from Sam McCallum, his first for the club, and Borja Sainz.

The win made it five in eight games for David Wagner's in-form side, who suddenly look like genuine promotion contenders after struggling for form earlier in the season.

But Wagner's former club failed to register a shot on goal until the 87th minute, a tame effort from Delano Burgzorg, and with just one win in 11 will need to improve quickly if they are to avoid a long relegation battle.

Huddersfield goalkeeper Chris Maxwell produced a magnificent save to keep the scoreline level at the break after a first half which was largely controlled by the hosts. It looked a goal all the way when Ashley Barnes connected with Jack Stacey's cross at the back post but Maxwell was somehow able to move across and claw away his powerful header.

Although Norwich dominated the opening period that was the only time they looked likely to score, with the Terriers defending well to keep them at arm's length.

The in-form Jon Rowe had a shot well blocked after tackling Huddersfield defender Yuta Nakayama on the right and Gabriel Sara fired a free-kick into the wall from a dangerous position, but those were rare moments of alarm for the visitors.

At the other end Town failed to register an effort on goal in the first half, although Jaheim Headley would have had one had his control not let him down in a good position.

It took Norwich less than two minutes of the second period to make their superiority count, with half-time substitute McCallum the unlikely hero.

The defender, who had just replaced the injured Dimitris Giannoulis, was perfectly placed to head in Marcelino Nunez's cross from close range after a half-cleared corner had been recycled.

Rowe and Sara both had long-range efforts comfortably gathered by Maxwell as the Canaries continued to press, before substitute Christian Fassnacht headed over with the goal at his mercy.

But a second Norwich goal looked inevitable and it finally arrived from a quick breakaway in the 73rd minute, with Sainz picking up possession on the left side of the box before picking his spot in the far corner to double City's advantage.

The managers

Norwich's David Wagner:

"The players deserve all the credit for the way they reacted to that bad run.

"They went through a difficult spell but they stood together, kept their heads up and never felt sorry for themselves.

"They said 'we are better than this, we can do better than this' and have put together a good run to get us back up the table.

"Now we have players coming back and the challenge is to keep this going, keep delivering, like we did today.

"I thought this was another good step in the right direction - a good result, a clean sheet and also a good overall performance, which I was also pleased about.

"Sometimes when opponents sit so deep you can get frustrated when the goals don't come early but we stuck at it and once we scored early in the second half I thought we controlled the game. We created a lot of opportunities and could have scored more goals."

Huddersfield's Darren Moore:

"We had defended well in the first half, while we also had a good impetus in the game for a while, but we switched off a couple of times for their goals which is disappointing.

"For the first goal it was second phase from a corner and they put in a good cross which the lad has headed in. We needed to be concentrating better then because you never like conceding goals like that from set pieces.

"It was a similar story with the second goal and you cannot afford that against a good side like Norwich.

"I am certainly not complaining about the effort the lads put in today and there were times when he had the ball and got into some promising positions.

"When we get there we need to be more determined, arrogant if you like, to make more of our chances."