Norwich City completed their remarkable Premier League return on a high, as they recorded an emphatic 2-0 win against Aston Villa at the Carrow Road to finish the table at the 12th place.
Grant Holt and Simeon Jackson scored a goal apiece in the opening 22 minutes of the game, which proved to be enough to help them secure their 12th league win of the season. However, they finished behind West Bromwich Albion and Swansea City on
a poor goal difference, after all three of them finished the league on 47 points.
On the other hand, the Villans suffered their 14th defeat of the season and managed to avoid being relegated by a margin of just two points.
Norwich went into the game on the back of two successive home defeats against Manchester City and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809, but got off to a best possible start, as Holt put the hosts ahead in the 9th minute.
Bradley Johnson delivered a deep cross inside the area from a free-kick and the English International went up in the ear to meet the header, but the ball went into the back of the net after hitting his shoulder instead.
Buoyed after grabbing the lead, the Canaries darted forward in search of the second goal. And they almost grabbed one, had it not been for a splendid save from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonathan-c18993 Howson just from the edge of the area.
However, the relief was short-lived for the visitors as Jackson doubled the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carlos-c8346 Cuellar.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kyle-Naughton-c21563 played a long ball towards the Villa box, and Cuellar inadvertently headed the ball back towards Jackson. And even though the initial shot from the Canadian footballer was blocked by Given, he calmly dispatched the ball into the bottom-left
corner of the goal of the rebound.
The visitors could have gone further behind just at the stroke of halftime but Elliott Bennett failed to test the goalkeeper with his effort.
However, Villa started to find their stride in the second half, and a double save from the Canaries shot stopper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/John-Ruddy-c18892 just after the break, prevented the visitors from reducing the deficit. Stephen Ireland’s shot from 20 yards out was blocked by the
English International, who also managed to keep out Emile Heskey’s attempt of the deflection.
Both the sides exchanged attacks midway into the second period, with Given saving a low shot from Jackson, while Ruddy was also up to the task at the other end as he kept out a powerful shot from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gabriel-Agbonlahor-c14288.
Even though Norwich created a host of opportunities in the closing stages, they failed to add to their lead, but nevertheless closed out an impressive 2-0 win to finish the season at the 12th place.
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