FT MAN UTD 1- 2 NORWICH CITY
Match Report
Louis van Gaal saw his Manchester United suffer a 2-1
home defeat by Norwich City to go a fourth Barclays
Premier League match in a row without a win.
Wayne Rooney, making his 500th appearance for the
club, returned from injury and helped United make a
promising start at Old Trafford, but they were stunned by
Cameron Jerome's goal shortly before the break, as
Norwich capitalised on their first chance of the half.
Alex Neil's side shocked the hosts again early in the
second half as Alex Tettey prodded in a second, with
United failing to make their control of possession count
against a disciplined visiting defence.
Anthony Martial, fresh from claiming the Golden Boy
prize for 2015, gave United a lifeline with a calm finish
from close range in the 67th minute as United poured
forward in the Manchester rain.
Juan Mata came close with a free-kick, but Norwich held
on for only their second win in 20 away games in the top
flight.
United, who were beaten by another promoted side, AFC
Bournemouth, last time out, started on the front foot, with
Memphis Depay curling one effort narrowly over before
Rooney dragged a shot wide after a good Mata run.
Memphis just failed to connect properly with a Rooney
cross as the home side continued to dominate, but
Norwich kept them largely at arm's length and began to
grow into the match as the half wore on.
The visitors snatched the lead just seven minutes before
the interval. After Tettey's good break, Nathan Redmond
turned inside Ashley Young before teeing up Jerome, who
sidefooted past David de Gea from close range despite
the goalkeeper getting a hand to the ball.
The Stretford End gave a rousing cheer in an effort to
encourage United, but Norwich sent the away fans into
raptures after another clinical counter-attack 10 minutes
after the break.
Jerome burst clear of Phil Jones after Rooney and
Michael Carrick had lost possession near halfway and
Tettey latched on to his pass before toe-poking the ball
past De Gea and into the bottom corner.
United had peppered the Norwich penalty area with
unsuccessful crosses, but one proved telling midway
through the second half, as Martial pounced on Rooney's
flicked header from a Mata delivery before firing high
past Declan Rudd from 12 yards out.
Mata's free-kick brought a good save out of Rudd, while
Chris Smalling, playing as a makeshift striker in
stoppage-time, headed wide after running clear through
on goal, but Norwich held on for a vital three points in
their bid for survival, while extending United's winless run
in all competitions to six matches.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal: “I can say a
lot of things but every word is too much I think. You can
see what confidence is doing to the players. Now it’s
very important that everybody sticks together, but that
was not good enough today. We have to win against
Norwich and we know that.
"We've lost three matches in a row so it’s not happening
so much for Manchester United. We can’t accept that and
that’s why I have to repeat, we have to stick together and
believe in ourselves. I’ve encountered these
circumstances also with other teams and other staff. The
main thing is that you have to be professional and do
the things that you have to do and work very hard
to come out of this bad period."
Norwich City manager Alex Neil: “It’s a really important
win. We’ve been in most of the games against the bigger
sides, our problem has been that we’ve been the makers
of our own downfall if you like, but today we eradicated
those mistakes. The boys were fantastic and deserved to
win the game.
“We wanted to attack this league and sometimes you
take a bit of a hiding on the back of that, but since we
lost to Newcastle we’ve been a lot more resilient and
harder to break down. Hopefully we’ve kick-started
something with this win. We deserved this victory. We’ve
got important games coming up, we’ve not got as many
points on the board as we’d have liked but this is a
welcome three points and hopefully we can add to that
tally over the Christmas period."
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