Stoke make it back-to-back away wins with victory at Norwich

Stoke made it back-to-back Sky Bet Championship away wins without conceding a goal as they recorded an impressive 2-0 victory at Norwich.

The visitors followed up their impressive 1-0 success at Hull with a dominant display at Carrow Road, with late goals from Sam Gallagher and Sorba Thomas earning them the points.

Norwich, who had enjoyed a profitable festive period before the weekend and would have moved out of the bottom three with a point, were never at their best and could have few complaints about a ninth home defeat of the season.

The visitors had the best chance of a scrappy first half inside two minutes, with Divin Mubama seeing his goal-bound shot deflected over by Harry Darling after the Canaries had carelessly lost possession.

Both sides struggled to create clear chances after that on a pitch that still had a light dusting of snow on it after the previous day’s wintry showers.

Norwich did not register an effort on target until the half-hour mark, with Jovon Makama’s header comfortably saved by young goalkeeper Tommy Simkin.

They also threatened from their next attack, which ended with Matej Jurasek finding the back of the net but the flag had already gone up for offside.

The lively Lamine Cisse had a couple of shots for the visitors, but neither troubled the underworked Vladan Kovacevic in the Norwich goal.

It was a similar story in the early stages of the second half, with Thomas providing a rare moment of excitement just past the hour when his lobbed attempt drifted inches wide of the target.

Bosun Lawal then fired wastefully over after Kovacevic had made a hash of a punched clearance and it was no big surprise when Stoke took the lead after 75 minutes.

The goal was all about Thomas, who did superbly to get to the byline on the left before squaring the ball for Gallagher to apply the simplest of touches from close range.

Stoke wasted no time in stretching their lead. This time Thomas was on the end of a low cross from substitute Million Manhoef after Simkin’s huge punt had been flicked on by Gallagher.