Norwich kept their slim hopes of staying up alive as they produced one of the comfortable football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. Pierre Lees-Melou opened the scoring for the home side in the ninth minute before Teemu Pukki sealed the three points in the 86th minute. The result meant that Norwich find themselves seven points behind Everton in 17th place and having played one more game.
Player ratings
Norwich: Krul (6), Byram (6), Hanley (7), Gibson (7), Giannoulis (7), Normann (7), Dowell (6), McLean (6), Lees-Melou (7), Pukki (7), Rashica (7).
Subs: Rupp (6), Tzolis (N/A), Williams (N/A)
Burnley: Pope (7), Lowton (7), Collins (6), Tarkowski (6), Taylor (6), Lennon (6), Westwood (7), Brownhill (6), Cornet (6), Rodriguez (6), Weghorst (5)
Subs: Barnes (N/A), Vydra (5), McNeil (6)
Man of the match: Ben Gibson
Managers Reaction
Norwich manager Dean Smith: “I think we defended our box really well when we had to because they put a lot of balls in there. We showed real quality on transition in the first half. We spoke to Pierre [Lees-Melou] – he has real quality – so we spoke about how he should get more goals and it’s great to see that one go in for him, but the team’s work ethic was really good today. Both teams have struggled for goals all season, so that first goal was always going to be important.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche: “It was a big step forward against Everton and a big step back today. The league table doesn’t look any different, just a game less, so the challenge is still in front of us. We still have to close that gap, we’ve definitely missed a chance to do that today. There wasn’t that much wrong with the performance, they get a lucky one, we take a lucky one – that happens sometimes. The truth of the season has been the quality in the final third, we get in so many good areas: the final pass, the final cross, and the final finish as well.”
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