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Strikers back in the goals
Norwich, with three youth team players on the substitutes bench, fielded a youthful eleven without the likes of Chadwick, Colin, Safri or Doherty. The sides lack of experience showed as they rarely looked like taking anything from the game, especially without Darren Huckerby to spearhead their attack.
Burnley enjoyed early spells of pressure down the right flank. Wade Elliott and Michael Duff working well in tandem to trouble the Norwich back line. It was no surprise that when the first goal came, on the half hour mark, it was from that side of the pitch. The impressive Eric Djemba-Djemba found Duff in an advanced position on the right and in acres of space the Northern Ireland right back clipped a gorgeous ball into the box. Akinbiyi, playing against the club he began his career with, rose above the defence to head only his second league goal since returning to Burnley in January.
Chris Martin wasted his sides only other opportunity of the first half when Lee Croft's cross fell to the tall striker, but he could only managed to fire his effort well over the crossbar. Jason Shackell and Martin both had long distance efforts after the break but nothing that threatened the Burnley goal with any severity.
Not until the introduction of Robert Earnshaw fifteen minutes from time did the away side look like taking anything back to Norfolk. The Wales international gave an edge to a blunt looking attack. He forced a smart near-post stop from Brian Jensen shortly after coming on and from the resulting corner Jensen made an agile one-handed save from Dublin's header to maintain his sides narrowest of leads. Despite being a virtual spectator for an hour the Burnley stopper was more than ready for action when called upon.
Jensen and his defence deserved their clean sheet. Caldwell and Thomas were immaculate at centre half and the big Danish goalkeeper is showing some of his best form following his recall to the side at the end of last month.
It did take home side until the 86th minute for the home side to make sure of all three points. The ever-industrious James O'Connor tried his luck from long-range and on-loan goalie Tony Warner could only push his effort onto the post. Andy Gray reacted first to the rebound and bundled the ball over the line for his first goal since November.
Wade Elliott, who put in an impressive performance on the right side of midfield, got the goal his efforts warranted just minutes before the final whistle. Jon Harley's cross was ducked under by substitute Chris McCann and Elliott chested the ball down before slotting the ball neatly in the bottom corner.
A 3-0 away defeat will be a trifle hard to take for a certain Norwich director I'm sure …….