Norwich City 4-2 Luton Town: Borja Sainz seals entertaining Canaries win

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Luton Town at Carrow Road on Saturday; Emiliano Marcondes and Borja Sainz score late on as Canaries seal entertaining win over struggling Hatters.

Saturday 30 November 2024 18:20, UK

Norwich hit the Carrow Road goal trail for the second time in five days as they beat Luton 4-2 to continue their climb towards the Championship play-off zone.

The Canaries had to work harder for their win than they did on Tuesday, when they hammered Plymouth 6-1, but it was a deserved success against a Luton side who contributed to their own downfall with some poor defending.

Having gone behind to a soft goal from Elijah Adebayo, Norwich turned the game around before the break with two goals from Ante Crnac, doubling his tally for the season.

Luton hit back just after the interval through Jacob Brown but two late goals from Emiliano Marcondes and Borja Sainz - his 16th this season - condemned the visitors to a sixth straight away defeat.

All three goals in the first half came from defensive errors, with Norwich the first to be punished on 20 minutes.

Anis Ben Slimane's misplaced back pass to Angus Gunn deflected off Jordan Clark into the path of Adebayo, who then had the simple task of slipping the ball past the exposed goalkeeper.

Norwich were level inside five minutes with a poor defensive header from Teden Mengi, and an equally weak punch from keeper Thomas Kaminski, seeing the ball fall nicely for Crnac to blast home from 10 yards.

The Canaries' second goal on 33 minutes was also down to rank bad defending, this time from Tahith Chong.

The midfielder unwisely tried to shepherd an overhit pass out of touch near the byline, allowing Jack Stacey to scoop the ball into the six yard box where Crnac was waiting to apply a straightforward finishing touch.

Kaminski then kept the Hatters in it with a superb fingertip save to keep out Shane Duffy's header from a corner.

Luton were quickly back on level terms in the second half, with Brown equalising in the 48th minute with another scruffy goal.

This time Shandon Baptiste's corner caused panic in the home defence and the ball fell kindly for Brown to fire high into the net from a few yards.

The game then swung from end to end, with both sides having their chances and improved defending at both ends keeping the scores level.

But, with nine minutes of normal time remaining, Norwich got their noses in front again with Crnac providing an assist to go with his two goals.

The Croatian won a crucial challenge on the edge of the box and unselfishly squared for Marcondes to slide the ball home at the back post.

The hosts made the points safe five minutes later by scoring a fourth, with substitute Onel Hernandez bursting into the box from the right before cutting back for Sainz to apply his latest assured finishing touch.

The managers

Norwich's Johannes Hoff Thorup:

"When we went behind, and then lost the lead, the fans were always there giving their support and we were really grateful for that, it really helped us across the line.

"I think the supporters can see this is a team in the making and can be a bit shaky at times and that is why they need the supporters behind them like this. They can make a big difference.

"I was also pleased with the way the players coped with the setbacks, they work hard and have a great attitude and in the end they got their reward.

"After the difficult spell we had (no wins in seven), it has been a good few days but I thought we were on our way back at West Brom (a 2-2 draw) when we looked much better.

"Scoring 10 goals in two games is obviously very pleasing and with players coming back now we have to make sure we build on that."

Luton's Rob Edwards:

"I am incredibly angry right now because we have chucked away the points. It was a good team performance for the vast majority of the game but individual errors have cost us.

"We go ahead and then concede two goals where we have had ample opportunities to clear the ball. It was horrendous defending.

"We get back into it and it's anybody's game but then our defending isn't good enough and we end up losing it.

"The fans weren't happy at the end and rightly so. They shouldn't be. I care massively about this club and I am not happy either.

"I let the players know what I thought about it afterwards - it wasn't down to a poor team performance, it was just individual errors costing us the points."