Swansea v Norwich Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Swansea.com Stadium Date - 14 September 2024 Kick off - 3pm Following their disappointing away defeat at high flying West Brom before the International Break, next up for Luke Williams’ Swansea squad is a tough looking home fixture against Norwich City. Two weeks ago, West Brom withstood second-half pressure by the Swans to earn a 1-0 win which lifted them into second place in the Championship. After the Baggies spurned numerous chances to go ahead, Jayson Molumby got the only goal on the stroke of half-time at The Hawthorns - his first strike since April 2023. The Swans came to life in the second half when summer signings Zan Vipotnik, Eom Ji-sung and Goncalo Franco spurned chances to equalise. As a consequence, Albion held on to preserve their unbeaten start to the league campaign, while the Swans sit on four points from this season's four Championship games. On the same day, Norwich registered their first Championship victory under head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup as Borja Sainz's goal proved enough to beat Coventry City. The Spaniard scored his third of the season, with a deflected shot from Jack Stacey's pass early in the second half in front of a crowd of 27,353 at the CBS Arena. Coventry began the match 11 places higher in the table than their opponents, but were unable to end a 10-match run of no wins against the Canaries in any competition since 2009. They created a number of opportunities but could not find a way past Scotland keeper Angus Gunn, who earned his second clean sheet from four league games at the start of the new campaign. In 61 previous meetings across all competitions, the Swans and the Canaries have both won 25 times apiece, with 11 draws. In the corresponding fixture last season, the Swans ran out 2-1 winners: My favourite clash between the 2 sides took place at the Liberty Stadium in the 2010/11 season, the year when both teams secured promotion to the PL: John Busby will be the man in the middle tomorrow. It will be the tenth time that the Oxfordshire-based official has overseen a Swans match following his promotion to Select Group 2 in the summer of 2021. The most recent of those matches was against Huddersfield at The John Smith's Stadium in April. The Swans won 4-0 on that day with goals from Jamal Lowe, Ronald, Liam Walsh and Jerry Yates. Busby handed out three yellow cards with Jamie Paterson booked from the Swans. Busby began his career as an assistant referee and served in the EFL for eight years before switching to the whistle and joining the National List of Referees in 2016. He has overseen two matches in the Championship this season and has handed out 11 yellow cards and one red. On Saturday, he will be assisted by Mark Russell and Andrew Dallison. Scott Simpson will be the fourth official. As for Norwich, Johannes Hoff Thorup is their current Manager. The Dane has been in charge at Carrow Road since succeeding David Wagner. Thorup signed a three-year contract at Carrow Road in May, joining from Danish Superliga side Nordsjaelland. Thorup had been in charge of Nordsjaelland since January 2023, having worked his way up from youth coach in 2015 to first-team assistant head coach in 2021. At just 35 years old, he became the third youngest manager in the Championship, behind Watford's Tom Cleverley and Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Röhl. Arguably, US international Josh Sargent who played a key role in Norwich's sixth-placed finish last term, scoring 16 goals in 28 Championship appearances, is the key player to keep an eye on. He has scored twice already this term, with the goals coming in the draws with Blackburn and Sheffield United, so the Swans will need to keep him in particular ‘quiet’ tomorrow. Given that the Swans rarely play well after an International Break, I would probably take a point now. However, whilst the Swans need to get the show back on the road, I think that Norwich, who are gradually coming to terms with how their Manager wants them to play, will run out 1-2 victors. Hope I’m wrong
Liam Cullen is fit and available for the Swans after recovering from the ankle injury that kept him out of the meeting with West Bromwich Albion. Sam Parker and Aimar Govea have returned to training but this game will come too soon for them. Kristian Pedersen, Josh Ginnelly and Andy Fisher are sidelined for the Swans
Please don't make me guess, it won't look pretty and it'll add to my gloom at our start All my pre season hope has gone at this point but it's still early, so you never know. I'd love to get that hope back, an inkling would do today!
The clean sheet against Coventry was our first this season. When he came in, Thorup's initial focus was on attacking play, and offensive transition in particular. But having seen the GA total mounting and GD dropping further into negative territory, he has taken action. To what effect, we will see in the next few weeks.
Great energy and intent this first half but one goal is a slender lead with Norwich looking handy on the break. Promising so far!
Great result, sweating that second half! More importantly a good performance. We desperately need to become a goalscoring threat though. Happy
Just getting back home. Great start - some good attacking play. Franco, Naughton and Grimes were outstanding. Goalie looked best I’ve seen him today. That said, the substitutions ‘wrecked’ us again. Why he takes Franco off is beyond my comprehension. On another day, Norwich would have taken one of their 3 great chances.
