Daniel Farke claimed Norwich’s 2-0 win over Bristol City was his side’s “best performance of the season so far” as they moved seven points clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.
The Canaries’ win was as comfortable as they come, with the visitors failing to register an effort on target all evening.
A goal in either half from Jordan Hugill sealed a comfortable victory, and boss Farke said: “It is always difficult to compare games but I would say this was our best performance of the season so far. The lads were fantastic and I can’t praise them enough.
“We dominated the game from start to finish, had nine shots on goal while denying them a single effort on our goal, had two thirds of the possession and the only complaint I could make was that we didn’t take more of the many chances we created.
“We are in a great position but we are not over the moon or anything like that because there are still a lot of games to play and I expect teams like Brentford and Swansea to win their games in hand. But I am very pleased with what I saw this evening.”
On goal hero Hugill, Farke added: “It was a fantastic, man-of-the-match performance from Jordan and I am delighted for him.
“He is a key player for us, even though he has had to wait for his chance. He doesn’t need to prove anything to me because everyone knows he can score goals at this level.”
A number of good chances for the impressive hosts came and went before they finally got their noses in front in the 36th minute.
Striker Hugill, deputising for injured top scorer Teemu Pukki, nodded home Todd Cantwell’s teasing cross at the back post to open the scoring and was also in the right place at the right time to double Norwich’s advantage 15 minutes from time.
There was a huge slice of luck about the goal, with Tomas Kalas’ attempted block bouncing off Hugill and into the back of the net, but it was no more than Farke’s side deserved.
Bristol City boss Dean Holden admitted his team had been second best all evening.
“We were beaten by a top team tonight, undoubtedly the best team in the league,” he said.
“We knew all about their qualities, how well they keep the ball and how expansive they are but were hoping to take advantage when we got the ball from them. But we never really did that and didn’t create nearly enough.
“We actually started the game quite brightly and also had quite a lot of the ball in the opening stages of the second half, but overall it was a tough evening for us.
“We didn’t pass it nearly as well as we did at Preston in our last game and we need to put this behind us and try and ensure we get back to those standards against Millwall in our next game.”
Holden added: “The second goal killed us and I thought the game should have been stopped when Jordan Hugill put his arm across Tommy Rowe and he went down. But having said that I can’t complain about the result.”
