Norwich head coach Philippe Clement felt his side got what they deserved after they scored two second-half goals to see off relegation-rivals Blackburn 2-0 in the Championship at Carrow Road.
A poor encounter that was crying out for a goal finally burst into life just past the midway point of the second half, with Norwich scoring in the 73rd and 78th minutes to make it four wins in five league games.
In-form Anis Ben Slimane broke the deadlock by scoring his fourth goal in five, pouncing on a rebound after a powerful drive from substitute Oscar Schwartau had come back off the upright.
The young Dane has heavily involved in Norwich’s second too, bringing a save out of goalkeeper Balazs Toth that saw the ball bounce kindly for Mohamed Toure to mark his debut with the simplest of tap-ins.
“It’s never easy when you have to break down a team who adapts to the way you play,” said Clement. “But in the end we showed the fight to get the three points.
“We scored two good goals, created other chances, especially in the second half and kept a clean sheet with no saves that I can remember.
“The substitutes in the second half gave us more energy and helped us push on.
“The supporters also played their part. They come with belief now and their energy helped us after we had been a bit slow on the ball in the first half.”
The only downside for Clement was injuries to Jovon Makama just after half-time and Papa Diallo in the warm-up.
He added: “With Jovon, I am not a doctor but he landed on another player and his ankle turned and it looked very painful.
“Papa felt something when he went to shoot – now they need to be assessed.”
Blackburn caretaker boss Damien Johnson felt his side should have taken something from a scrappy encounter that had 0-0 written all over it before the late drama.
“We’re very disappointed with the result because for 70 minutes or so there was not a lot in it,” he said.
“We had some opportunities and they did too, but we worked hard and were well in the game.
“But when you are playing against a good side like Norwich, you can get punished and that’s what happened.
“They took two of their chances and won the game – that’s football.
“It was great that we had 600 or 700 fans there despite the early kick-off and we would have loved to have given them a present to go home with but it wasn’t to be.”
It was Johnson’s second match in temporary charge and he is waiting to see whether he will get a third game at QPR next weekend.
“I don’t know but whoever takes over will have a strong squad, with a number of players coming back into contention. There is everything to play for,” he added.
