Norwich return to winning ways with narrow success over Millwall

Norwich put a poor run of form behind them as they saw off Millwall 2-1 at Carrow Road.

The Canaries had taken just one point from their previous four Championship matches but were good value for a narrow Boxing Day win, with first-half goals from Emiliano Marcondes and Oscar Schwartau – his first for the club – giving them the points.

Millwall offered little in what is likely to be David Livermore’s final game as caretaker head coach, although Romain Esse did make a game of it by pulling one back midway through the second half.

Norwich took a firm grip on proceedings courtesy of two scruffy goals which came at either end of an undistinguished opening period.

The Canaries made their first incisive attack of the game count after just four minutes, with Marcondes netting his third goal of the season from close range.

It came after the hosts had worked the ball from left to right across the edge of the box, with Schwartau sending in a low cross which Millwall failed to deal with, allowing an alert Marcondes to prod home.

The hosts nearly made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later, goalkeeper Lukas Jensen doing well to foil top scorer Borja Sainz as he bore down on goal, but little of note happened after that until the second goal arrived in the 39th minute.

This time it was a looping cross to the back post from Ben Chrisene which caught the Lions out as Schwartau managed to bundle the ball home despite the close attention of Joe Bryan.

At the other end, Millwall barely posed a threat, with Murray Wallace’s header that fizzed just over their best moment before the break.

Schwartau was inches away from doubling his tally early in the second half, hitting the far post from a tight angle after another good ball in from the left from Chrisene.

Millwall then found themselves a way back into the game by scoring a goal out of the blue on 65 minutes.

A foray down the left saw the ball worked inside to Esse, who pulled the trigger from the edge of the box and beat keeper Angus Gunn low to his left to breathe new life into an encounter which had appeared to be firmly in the home side’s grasp.

The Lions never seriously threatened to score a second, however, and it took a fine reaction stop from Jensen to prevent substitute Onel Hernandez from heading home a third for Norwich.