Lee Marshall scored for the second week running as Norwich salvaged a point
against West Brom at Carrow Road.
The young midfielder struck with just 12 minutes remaining to cancel out Mario
Bortolazzi's deflected free kick which had given the visitors the lead five
minutes into the second half.
Marshall had also found the net last Saturday at Gresty Road, only to see his
side amazingly surrender a two-goal lead in the final eight minutes.
This time the Canaries looked much more of a cohesive outfit and would have
taken all three points but for a mixture of bad luck and some excellent saves
from keeper Phil Whitehead.
The Baggies looked the better side earlier on and twice went close to breaking
the deadlock in the space of a couple of minutes early in the first half.
First James Quinn saw his deflected drive from just inside the area come back
off the upright and then Fabian DeFreitas shot straight at Marshall after
breaking clear of the City defence.
A bizarre incident in the 33rd minute seemed to inspire the home side as Chris
Llewellyn nodded the ball out of Whitehead's hand struck the ball into the net.
Gary Crosby had seen a referee allow a similar effort while playing for
Nottingham Forest some years ago.
But Burns decided that Llewellyn was guilty of ungentlemanly conduct and
promptly ruled out the goal and showed the young Welshman the yellow card - even
though the ball was only resting in Whitehead's palm as he prepared to clear.
Perhaps buoyed on by a sense of injustice Bruce Rioch's side dominated from
that moment onwards and twice went close to drawing level either side of the
interval.
Llewellyn was denied by a beautifully timed last-ditch challenge from Matt
Carbon and then 10 seconds after the restart Whitehead produced a double save to
deny first Llewellyn and then his Welsh international colleague Iwan Roberts.
West Brom then proceeded to take the lead with what proved to be their only
on-target effort of the second half, Italian midfielder Bortolazzi seeing his
30-yard free kick deflected past the wrong-footed Andy Marshall.
Norwich responded to that goal in superb fashion, laying siege to the West
Brom goal, and they were finally rewarded after 78 minutes when Llewellyn's
cross from the right was headed into the danger area by Darren Eadie and
Marshall was on hand to bundle the ball home from just inside the six yard box.
Teams
Norwich: A. Marshall, Fuglestad, Fleming, Jackson, Wilson,
Llewellyn, Adams, L. Marshall, Sutch, Eadie, Roberts.
Subs Not Used: Mackay, Grant, Watt.
Booked: Llewellyn.
Goals: L. Marshall 78.
West Brom: Whitehead, Holmes, Murphy, Carbon, Potter,
Flynn (Angel 84), Bortolazzi (Maresca 84), Sneekes, Quinn,
De Freitas, Hughes.
Subs Not Used: Burgess.
Goals: Bortolazzi 50.
Att: 15,411
Ref: B Burns (Scarborough).
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