Baggies hope to keep Canaries’ home troubles going

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·30 September 2025

Baggies hope to keep Canaries’ home troubles going

Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion; Carrow Road, Wednesday 1st October 2025, 7.45pm

Ryan Mason’s side head to Norfolk on Wednesday evening looking to put an end to a run of three games without a victory that seems somewhat unmerited given the overall standard of their performances. Their opponents, Norwich City, have lost all four of their home games this season to Millwall, Middlesbrough and Wrexham in the league, while Southampton won 3-0 at Carrow Road in the Carabao Cup. One of those streaks will come to an end when the sides meet on Wednesday.

New Canaries boss, Liam Manning, will have hoped for a better start in front of the club’s own fans, albeit City have won three times on the road in all competitions, most recently at Blackburn Rovers at the end of August. The club spent big on attacking players Mathias Kvistgaarden and Papa Amadou Diallo, but their best bit of business in the summer was keeping hold of star striker Josh Sargent. He already has five Championship goals to his name this season, as well as another in the League Cup, making up half of his team’s total goals tally. City’s challenges have been in keeping goals out – they have scored ten but conceded ten this season in the league which leaves them firmly in mid-table in the Championship with eight points from seven games.

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Ryan Mason handed full debuts to both Charlie Taylor and Samuel Iling-Junior against Leicester last Friday and it was the Villa loanee that stood out with a stunning solo goal for the opener. Josh Maja got his longest run out of the campaign, coming on in the 72nd minute, and, while he missed one glaring opportunity, I wonder whether the time is right to give him a go from the start. Alfie Gilchrist is another who will be itching for some game time having yet to feature with George Campbell continuing at right back despite some occasionally indifferent displays.

With Norwich evidently struggling in front of their own fans, this is a great opportunity for Albion to get their season back on track and take all three points.

History

There have been a few occasions in my Baggies-supporting lifetime when Albion have earned important results at Carrow Road. In April 2008, Tony Mowbray’s team earned a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Robert Koren and Zoltán Gera that put Albion on the brink of promotion back to the Premier League while a 1-0 win in April 2014 thanks to a goal from Morgan Amalfitano was crucial in the battle against relegation for Pepe Mel’s team. However, the one that will always stick out for me wasn’t that important in the scheme of things but, boy, did it entertain.

In August 2018, Darren Moore’s team travelled to Carrow Road for what was their second away game of the season. Leicester City loanee, Harvey Barnes, had made an impact on the opening day with a debut goal although the visitors, Bolton Wanderers, took the points, while Matt Phillips’ late goal had earned a point at Nottingham Forest.

There were few signs of the free-scoring team that Big Dave’s team would become that season in those opening two games, but Baggies’ fans were to get a glimpse of what was to come on that sunny day in Norfolk. Jay Rodriguez, who had been top scorer in Albion’s relegation campaign, was inevitably linked with a move away but remained at the Hawthorns for the time being, and he was joined up front by Dwight Gayle, signed on loan from Newcastle United, who would make his full debut against the Canaries.

But it was another new striker, Jordan Rhodes, who opened the scoring for the hosts on 24 minutes with his first goal for the club, a strike from close range after good work from Onel Hernández and Teemu Pukki. It has been an end-to-end game with both sides creating decent chances. It continued in that vein and Gayle had his first serious impact in an Albion shirt when he was brought down by Canaries’ ‘keeper, Tim Krul, who was making his home debut, just after the half hour. Jay Rodriguez stepped up to convert the spot kick and the visitors were level. Before half time, Rhodes had the chance to put the hosts back in front when Chris Brunt brought down Hernández in the box, but his tame penalty was saved by Sam Johnstone and the teams went into the half time break all square.

Two minutes into the second half, Gayle dispossessed Alex Tettey in the Norwich half and laid the ball off to Rodriguez – he hit a fierce shot that Krul completely lost in the air, and it flew into the net to give Albion a 2-1 lead. Both sides had chances, with Rhodes pulling a particularly fine save from Johnstone, before Matt Phillips latched onto a ball on the right wing and pulled it back – Rodriguez dummied and Harvey Barnes followed up to hit a clinical strike into the bottom corner for his second goal in three games for his new club.

The Baggies could have extended their lead further but they let City back into the game when Allan Nyom was dispossessed by Hernández near his own goalline, and the Cuban pulled the ball back for Pukki to reduce the arrears with 20 minutes left. Within ten of those, however, Albion were two goals ahead once again – Brunt’s deep corner was headed back into the “mixer” by Hegazi and Hal Robson-Kanu was on hand to fire in from about ten yards.

It wasn’t to be all plain sailing for the remainder of the game, however, as Onel Hernández was once again involved as he dug out a cross from the right that was powered home by Grant Hanley to make it 3-4 with eight minutes left. The Baggies were able to hold on, however, for their first victory of the season.