NORWICH CITY v WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Barclays Premier League
Sunday 12th May 2013, 3:00pm
Carrow Road

MATCH NOTES

Albion's last game on May 12 came in 1984 when they defeated Luton Town 3-0 at The Hawthorns. Tony Morley, Cyrille Regis and Steve Mackenzie the scorers.

The last time Norwich played on this date was in 2002 when they lost 4-2 on penalties to Birmingham City in the First Division play-off final at Cardiff.

Graham Dorrans will make his 150th Albion appearance if he plays any part of the game.

Whatever the result of the match, Albion have already secured successive top-flight top half finishes for the first time since 1980 and 1981.

On-loan striker Romelu Lukaku needs one goal to equal Peter Odemwingie's Albion club record of 15 Premier League goals in a season.

Albion's last six games: Manchester City (A) 0-1; Wigan Athletic (H) 2-3; Southampton (A) 3-0; Newcastle United (H) 1-1; Arsenal (H) 1-2; West Ham United (A) 1-3.

City's last six games: Aston Villa (H) 1-2; Stoke City (A) 0-1; Reading (H) 2-1; Arsenal (A) 1-3; Swansea City (H) 2-2; Wigan Athletic (A) 0-1.

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Steve Clarke should have Chris Brunt, James Morrison and Gabriel Tamas all available despite their recent injuries. The Baggies' boss will however have to do without Marc-Antoine Fortune as the striker serves the final game of his three match suspension. 

Zoltan Gera and George Thorne remain sidelined with long-term injuries.

Squad from: Foster, Myhill, Jones, Brown, Ridgewell, McAuley, Popov, Reid, Olsson, Dawson, Thomas, Lukaku, Morrison, Dorrans, Rosenberg, Brunt, Yacob, Long, Odemwingie, Tamas, Mulumbu.

Norwich City

Goalkeeper John Ruddy could make his return for Norwich after five-months out with a thigh injury.

Winger Robert Snodgrass has recovered from cramp which saw him forced off in last weekend's defeat by Aston Villa but centre-half Michael Turner is still sidelined with his groin injury.

Squad from: Ruddy, Whittaker, Bassong, R Bennett, Martin, Pilkington, Tettey, Johnson, Snodgrass, Hoolahan, Holt, Bunn, Howson, Becchio, Garrido, Barnett, E Bennett, Jackson.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke:

“It’s a good game this week. We had a good game at home to Wigan last weekend. It was an open game, an attractive game, and Wigan got the breaks on the day. They managed to beat us 3-2, which kept a lot of teams in trouble. Wigan losing in midweek has released a little bit of pressure on some of the teams - but Norwich are not one of those teams. They are still under pressure and certainly need to get something from the game at the weekend.

“We can go there with the freedom to play. We did a lot of good work earlier in the season to put ourselves in a really good position where we’re not involved in the scrap at the bottom. We’ll go there and play with a good attitude. We’ll try our best to win the game because that’s what we always do.

“We still have our own ambitions. We want to finish with 50 points and we want to secure eighth spot. If we win on Sunday that will take us over the 50-point barrier and I think it will just about secure a top-eight finish as well, which for us would be a fantastic achievement.

“It’s up to us to go there and put on a good show. Our last two away games at Southampton and Manchester City were really good performances. If we go there and repeat those performances I think we can get a positive result.”

www.wba.co.uk

City boss Chris Hughton:

“The mood has been good. The lads, no doubt, know what this game means. They know how badly we want to win this game, and certainly it won’t be through lack of effort. It’s about us making sure that we get the result that we need. We don’t know what the other results will be. We have to make sure that is very much in our hands. If we get the results that we need to get, then you don’t have to rely on other results.”

“There was a real disappointment after last week’s game against Aston Villa because we felt the performance shouldn’t have seen us losing. We’ve had a good week’s training, and we’ve certainly picked ourselves up from last weekend. We know the job in hand against a very good West Brom side.

“They have the offensive tools to hurt teams and they’ve showed that throughout the season. He (Steve Clarke) changed the team a little bit against Manchester City - he’s done that in the last few weeks. They’ve had Premier League security for a while, but they have some very good options.”

www.canaries.co.uk

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 11/5, Norwich City Win: 5/4, Draw: 23/10.

First Goalscorer

Albion: Lukaku 11/2, Long 7/1, Rosenberg 8/1, Odemwingie 9/1, Dorrans 12/1, Morrison 12/1, Brown 14/1, Thomas 16/1, Brunt 16/1, Roofe 20/1, Mulumbu 20/1, McAuley 20/1.

Norwich City: Holt 6/1, Snodgrass 7/1, Jackson 7/1, Becchio 15/2, Hoolahan 15/2, Pilkington 9/1, Bennett 12/1, Howson 16/1, Johnson 20/1.

REFEREE

Howard Webb (South Yorkshire)

Webb has refereed Albion just once previously this season - the 2-1 defeat against Arsenal at The Hawthorns five weeks ago.

The South Yorkshire official has taken charge of three City games during 2012/13 - the 4-3 win at Swansea City in December, the goalless draw against Fulham at Carrow Road in February and the 1-0 defeat at Wigan in March.

Webb has issued 142 yellow and five red cards in his 40 games this season.

TICKET INFORMATION

The game is now a complete sell-out with no tickets left available.

WEATHER FORECAST

Mostly cloudy but dry, 14°C.

FIXTURE HISTORY

LAST LEAGUE MEETING AT CARROW ROAD

Norwich City 0-1 Albion
Barclays Premier League
Sunday 11th September 2011, 1:30pm

Norwich City: Rudd, Naughton, Barnett, De Laet, Tierney, Bennett, Crofts, Bradley Johnson, Surman (Hoolahan 62), Holt (Morison 70), Chris Martin (Vaughan 70). Subs not used: Russell Martin, Jackson, Fox, Wilbraham.

Booked: De Laet 75 (dissent)

Albion: Foster, Reid, Olsson, Tamas, Shorey, Dorrans (Morrison 69), Mulumbu, Scharner, Thomas (Brunt 84), Long (Tchoyi 88), Odemwingie. Subs not used: Fulop, Dawson, Jones, Cox.

Goalscorer: Odemwingie 3

Booked: Scharner 16 (foul), Reid 90+5 (foul)

Attendance: 26,158

Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)

Peter Odemwingie's early goal proved enough to give West Brom their first Barclays Premier League win of the season at Norwich. The Nigerian capitalised on a mix-up between Ritchie de Laet and rookie keeper Declan Rudd, in for the suspended John Ruddy, to fire the Baggies ahead on three minutes. Norwich, now without a victory in four league games, had a few half-chances but did not really test Ben Foster - and would have been out of contention with 15 minutes left but for a fine penalty save from Rudd.

West Brom had lost all three of their Premier League games before this afternoon - but two of those were against title hopefuls Manchester United and Chelsea, while Stoke stole a 1-0 win in the last minute at The Hawthorns before the international break. It took the Baggies only three minutes to go ahead following a terrible mix-up in the Norwich defence. A long ball from Nicky Shorey caught the Norwich rearguard cold, as De Laet's header did not reach a hesitant Rudd, and Odemwingie nipped in to poke the ball into the far corner. Norwich looked for a response, with Andrew Surman getting in on the left and his near-post effort was kicked out by Ben Foster, with captain Grant Holt unable to guide the rebound on target. Norwich continued to press, but without really stretching the West Brom defence, while looking vulnerable on the counter. Surman drove in a low 20-yard effort, but Foster was down quickly to make a comfortable save. Elliott Bennett slammed Marc Tierney's left-wing cross over from eight yards after 30 minutes. The former Brighton winger did better when cutting inside to sting Foster's hands with a rasping drive from the edge of the penalty area. Rudd lifted his confidence with a decent block from Odemwingie as the West Brom forward burst clear down the right after the Norwich defence was easily split once again. West Brom were inches away from going 2-0 ahead five minutes before the break when Graham Dorrans strode forward and lashed a 25-yard effort against the post.

Norwich had more purpose at the start of the second half, and worked the ball up to Chris Martin in the right side of the West Brom box, but his cut-back was hooked over by Andrew Crofts. Bradley Johnson let fly from 25 yards and his effort flew inches over the top-right corner. Norwich manager Lambert - who had not named a keeper on the bench - made a change on the hour as Wes Hoolahan replaced the lively Surman. The Canaries were now enjoying their best spell, but again opted for the wrong pass when well placed in the final third. Lambert made a double change with 20 minutes left as captain Holt was replaced by Steve Morison, and James Vaughan came on for Martin to make his first appearance since a summer move from Everton. On 75 minutes, West Brom swung a deep free-kick into the Norwich area, which dropped to Steven Reid, who went down under what looked minimal contact from Wales forward Morison. Referee Mark Halsey, though, had seen enough and pointed to the spot. Odemwingie rolled the penalty towards the bottom left corner - but Rudd dived full stretch to produce a magnificent save. Norwich were lifted by the sense of justice served, and moved on the offensive again. Wales striker Morison planted a free-header wide from six yards after Tierney whipped the ball in from the left when he really should have hit the target. In stoppage time, Vaughan was flatted by an elbow from Gabriel Tamas at a corner, which was missed by the referee and just about summed up Norwich's afternoon. The Canaries continued to push West Brom back in desperate search of an equaliser. Reid bundled over Morison on the edge of the area - but Johnson's free-kick hit the wall.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

City defender Leon Barnett spent three and a half years at The Hawthorns before joining Norwich in January 2011. The former Luton man had already spent four months on loan at Carrow Road before the move was made permanent for an undisclosed fee.

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: Mark Barham, Geoff Barnsley, Trevor Benjamin, Ron Bradley, Paul Crichton, David Cross, Fernando Derveld, Robert Earnshaw, Jimmy Edwards, Ken Foggo, Ruel Fox, Asa Hartford, John Hartson, Gerry Howshall, Andy Johnson, Lee Marshall, Paul Peschisolido, Mike Phelan, Colin Suggett, Andy Townsend, Steve Walford and Brian Whitehouse.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS NORWICH CITY