To the winners – a place on top of the Championship, if only for a few hours. To the defeated – heartache and potentially an end to their hopes of automatic promotion as the play-offs beckon.
Such were the high stakes being competed for at Carrow Road when an early own goal from Alex Tettey gave Middlesbrough a crucial win and brought the Premier League closer into focus.
However, with Norwich City now two points adrift of Boro and one point behind Bournemouth, which might become four on Saturday, the end-of-season lottery looks to be the likely route for the Norfolk club if they are to recapture their place in the top flight at the first attempt.
Middlesbrough had a golden chance late in the game to make their victory more emphatic but even though they could lose the top spot on Saturday, with their promotion rivals Bournemouth and Watford both playing at home, they have put themselves firmly back in contention in what appears now to be a three-horse race for the leading two positions.
“It’s been an amazing week,” said Boro’s manager, Aitor Karanka. “To win three games in six days, especially this one at Norwich when people were expecting us to lose. I’m very proud of my players. Once again they proved that when they are at their best they can beat anybody.”
The purpose and quality behind Middlesbrough’s start caught Norwich by surprise and resulted in a stream of corners – any of which could have led to them going in front. There was a sharpness about them that belied their recent poor run on their travels, with defeats at both Bournemouth and Watford preceding this.
Jelle Vossen was only just stifled out of it when Tomas Kalas did well to chase down a long pass and send the ball across. The same player then fired the ball narrowly over on the volley after Albert Adomah’s driven centre had been helped on by Patrick Bamford.
A delightful reverse pass from Lee Tomlin then sent Bamford striding through. Only Sébastien Bassong with a vital interception prevented Vossen from helping himself to a tap-in. However, the eighth-minute corner offered no respite to Norwich as the ball caught the back of Tettey’s head and was over the line before Adomah arrived to make sure.
“The first 20 minutes cost us the game,” lamented the Norwich manager, Alex Neil, who had overseen 14 wins and only two defeats in his first 19 games since succeeding Neil Adams.
“It now looks as if we will be involved in the play-offs, so we have to dust ourselves down and go again. There’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves.”
It was a remorseless encounter with both sides giving their all. Norwich managed to put their poor start behind them and dominated possession for the remaining 70 minutes but Boro had a huge prize to defend and they did it superbly.
Clear openings were at a premium, although Norwich’s Jonny Howson will be rueing his failure to plant a header on target midway through the first half after Bradley Johnson had nodded the ball across at the back post.
With Cameron Jerome well shackled by Daniel Ayala it was the sinuous runs of the sprightly Wes Hoolahan that offered Norwich’s most likely route to an equaliser. Carrow Road howled for a penalty when he went tumbling over in the area just before the interval but the referee Robert Madley’s only response was to show him the yellow card for diving.
The temperature increased as Neil sent on both Lewis Grabban and Gary Hooper to augment Jerome but still the visitors held firm, with Ben Gibson throwing himself in the way of a Russell Martin piledriver in the dying moments.
Norwich had several penalty appeals waved away. It all became pretty desperate but the course of the game remained unchanged. Seldom can victory and defeat have potentially meant so much for the two teams involved.
