High drama at Carrow Road as Norwich leave it late to beat Reading

Wow. Norwich v Reading and if ever a game summed up a Norwich City match this season, this was it. Red card, drama, fisticuffs, poor defending and of course, a late, late winner.
It’s getting to be such a great formula and you’ve got to ask yourself – has Carrow Road ever seen so much drama in one season?
When the two sides met in Berkshire back in November there was similar high drama, mostly centered around Grant Holt’s questionable red card for a foul on Ian Harte.
Pre-match message boards had talked about the kind of reception Harte should get from the City fans – more of that later as an incident midway through this game could mean more trouble from the FA.
As for the match itself, well City’s starting XI is pretty much the strongest side Paul Lambert can put out at the moment. His first choice back four, his favoured two strikers and the midfield of Hoolahan, Crofts, Lansbury and Fox is what you’d expect to see on a City team sheet. A returning Andrew Surman would later come on for Lansbury.
City got off to an awful start, with Elliot Ward conceding a corner in the first ten seconds and putting in a generally under-par display for most of the game. Reading looked like they could run riot in the first five minutes but as the game settled down, with Harte booed at every touch, Norwich played some excellent football and deservedly took the lead after 16 minutes with Hoolahan twisting past Jay Tabb and rolling the ball across the penalty box for Henri Lansbury who really couldn’t miss.
City had chances to add to the scoring but Reading were a growing threat, particularly the gangly figure of Mali striker Jimmy Kebe. I’ve been a big fan of Kebe since he signed for Reading and he was certainly The Royals’ biggest threat.
Kebe won the ball from a stuttering Ward on 26 minutes, broke quickly down the right and slotted the ball across the box for Shane Long to tuck the ball home despite the efforts of Leon Barnett.
All square at the break and with Surman on for Lansbury on the hour, the game entered half an hour of high, high drama.
First Reading’s young Turkish defender Jem Karacan was dismissed for a bad tackle on David Fox. The City bench all leapt up and the players came together for the first time with pushing and shoving all over the place. Karacan was shown a straight red, but I thought the tackle wasn’t that bad. Clearly it was late and a yellow for sure, but I think the general reaction spurred the ref to brandish a red.
Reading didn’t do a bad job with ten men, but their attacking flair definitely tailed off for the last 20 minutes.
And so to the first big incident. With 20 minutes to go Ian Harte was preparing to take a throw in right in the corner of the Jarrold Stand/Barclay touchline. An object, was thrown at Harte from the Lower Barclay, clipped Harte on the shoulder and bounced up and appeared to strike the linesman.
Skipper Holt was frustrated, picking up the lighter and throwing it to the floor, before handing it to a steward.
While the stewards entered the crowd looking for a culprit, Reading broke down the left, Leon Barnett pulled up with a hamstring injury and Reading won a corner. For a minute or two Carrow Road went crazy. The stewards were in the bottom of the Barclay hauling out fans, Barnett was in the opposite corner getting treatment, Zak Whitbread was trying to come on and Reading were waiting to take a corner. Thankfully City didn’t concede. Barnett went off, Zak came on, the Barclay calmed down, the lino was fine and the game continued.
The returning Surman clipped the bar but that strike was far too early for it to be included in a Norwich game in 2011. City fans stayed calm, we knew something would happen as the game entered the magical stoppage time period.
Sure enough the multiple substitutions and Reading timewasting conjoured up four extra minutes. Fans around me in the Jarrold Stand started to leave – but all of them seemed to mention that City would probably score. It’s not in irony anymore – it’s more a fact now as it had already happened seven times this season.
And sure enough with nothing left on the clock, Andrew Crofts spun a ball across the box, Aaron Wilbraham and a Reading defender missed the ball and who was there at the far post but Holt to tuck the ball in.
That set up more wild celebrations on the half way line and another much-needed three points. The fact that Paul Lambert came on the pitch and applauded the whole crowd spoke volumes about what a great atmosphere Carrow Road created today.