Sheff Wed 2-2 Norwich City: Davitt Championship pointers

1. Low blows

The faces of David Wagner and his players told the story at the full-time whistle. From a position of total supremacy at the interval, City paid a heavy price for failing to put Sheffield Wednesday away.

Jack Stacey was clean through and denied by James Beadle just before the hour mark. Gabby Sara hared away in the same right-sided channel in the 70th minute, only to drag his angled shot wide of the far post.

Get that third, and even the manic urgings of Owls’ boss Danny Röhl on the touchline would have surely been in vain.

Worth recognising at this point, despite their lowly status in the bottom three of the Championship at kick-off, the hosts had only lost one of their previous seven at Hillsborough. A Yorkshire derby to Daniel Farke’s Leeds. Under Röhl they are conditioned to scrap and fight and when they swung two late corners into the Norwich back it was the Canaries who wilted.

But that is no excuse. City and Wagner would have expected an onslaught after the abject manner of the home side’s first half display.

All that swagger and confidence had evaporated by the end. The visitors’ rapid start to the game, which saw Norwich race 2-0 up inside 16 minutes, suggested they were still high on intoxicating derby fumes.

To cough up two priceless points in their play-off quest ensures feet will return firmly to terra firma; far quicker than a by-product of Wagner’s cautionary words to put Ipswich in the rear view mirror and focus on the battles to come.

A painful reminder again how cruel and how competitive the Championship is.   

2. Set piece karma

Not the usual corner route to profitability, but when Josh Sargent swept home Ashley Barnes’ flick from Sam McCallum’s throw in, to put Norwich in front at Hillsborough, that was a seventh set piece goal in the last six league games.

Unfortunately Sheffield Wednesday had read the same script. Michael Ihiekwe and then Michael Smith towered above the Norwich defence to crash home two far-post headers from inswinging corners to deny the Canaries a win.

Once the sting subsides, the see-saw nature of this full-blooded Championship draw should serve to underline why Norwich’s coaching team appear to have zoned in on dead ball chances.  

That is quite the seam of output and Wagner has been quick to highlight the intellectual capital of Andy Hughes in a growing success.

Add a dash of south American flair and quality in the free kicks of Marcelino Nunez and Sara, and you can see why Norwich are vying for top spot in the Championship when it comes to set piece goals scored.

Particularly with a potential play-off road ahead where, to borrow a line from Ipswich chief Kieran McKenna at the weekend, tight games are decided by fine margins. A corner here, a free kick there, now a pre-planned throw in routine.

City experienced both sides of that equation in Yorkshire. To leak two late goals from corners is a timely reminder of the damage that can accrue to the debit column.  

But the more avenues Norwich have to tilt this season decisively in their favour, the better.

Wagner’s Huddersfield navigated a path through the play-offs in 2015 without scoring a goal. Two penalty shoot-outs and an own goal to knock out Sheffield Wednesday in a two-legged semi-final. That would take economy to a whole different level. And require nerves of steel.

3. Blinkers back on

With Norwich 2-0 and cruising they had replaced West Brom in fifth and were seven points clear of seventh-placed Coventry City. Fast forward past the late home carnage at Hillsborough, and West Brom had regained fifth - without kicking a ball - ahead of their home game against Rotherham on Wednesday.

Although the Sky Blues’ 2-1 defeat at Southampton did ensure Norwich had extended the gap to five points, albeit the FA Cup semi-finalists retain a game in hand.

What a dizzying, disorientating snapshot of the permutations and the play-off pressure taking hold. Little wonder Wagner has routinely been at pains to stress all he frets about is Norwich take care of their own business, and let the rest worry about themselves.

But as he also said at his pre-match press call ahead of the trip north, when points and games start to run out it is only human nature to lift your head and look at which way the prevailing wind is blowing.

Now Wagner must take his battered and bruised side to a Preston this Saturday who came from behind to crush Huddersfield 4-1, and move level on points with Coventry and with the same game in hand on Norwich.

This is now the latest test of the Canaries’ mettle. To claim 51 points from the last 27 league games is promotion form, however you dice it.

But that late autumnal slump put Wagner firmly on the back foot, and left Norwich playing catch up. Now they are the hunted, and to blow the win at Hillsborough removes any vestige of an insurance policy if they had stumbled elsewhere on this run-in.

Yet again the days that follow will be all about how Wagner and his players respond to fresh adversity. They have been here before. Many times.  

4. Danny Boy

When you consider Danny Batth had over 400 league starts in his career the 33-year-old was unlikely to be fazed by a rare call up from the Norwich bench. A muscular concern for Shane Duffy opened the door, in what was Batth’s first league start in green and yellow since December 29.

Given the control and goals that flowed inside the opening 20 minutes for Wagner’s side what might have been a test of his match fitness was largely an exercise in concentration. But not even the towering Batth could help stem the flow in the Owls’ frenzied late riposte.

Wagner had again made reference to the thinness of his resources in the build up, after a January window that saw the likes of Adam Forshaw and Przemyslaw Placheta depart and a striker shuffle involving Adam Idah and Sydney van Hooijdonk.

The sight of substitute Liam Gibbs departing barely three minutes after his arrival at Hillsborough, with a suspected quad issue, underlined the point.

Batth himself arrived on a frenetic deadline day in the summer when Andrew Omobamidele completed his Premier League move to Nottingham Forest. The centre back must have felt frustration in the intervening period, but this was a telling eulogy from Wagner after his derby cameo at the weekend.

“There's one player I really like to name, and I know he gets not a lot of headlines, but Danny Batth is, for me, one of the best professionals I ever worked with,” he said. “Even if he does not get the most game time, you see how he is on it in every training session, every meeting and how he pushed his competitors. This is an outstanding character which we have in our dressing room and big credit to him.”

Sunderland’s fan base have echoed the same sentiments since his departure. There are players whose value can be measured in goals or assists or saves. But in any squad and any dressing room there are also those who influence pervades by the example they set, the vigour they train and the willingness perhaps to sacrifice individual ambition for the collective good.

City will need characters like Batth to handle the ups and the downs as this season reaches a climax.