Stacey strike helps Norwich to deserved win over Stoke

Norwich maintained their excellent start to the season at Carrow Road with a third straight home win as they beat Stoke 1-0 to keep up with the early pacemakers in the Championship.

A scrappy game with few clear opportunities was settled by a 44th-minute goal from defender Jack Stacey, his first for the Canaries since his arrival from Bournemouth during the summer.

It was a deserved win for the hosts, although they rarely hit the heights against a Stoke side who also struggled to create as they slipped to a fourth defeat in six league games.

Both sides looked short of ideas early on, with the warm conditions clearly having an affect on the pace of play, and it wasn’t until the later stages of the half that the game livened up.

The first good chance at either end didn’t arrive until the 39th minute and it was wasted by Norwich striker Adam Idah, who got a firm connection inside a crowded area but fired straight at Mark Travers.

Jon Rowe did likewise a couple of minutes later after working himself some space by cutting inside from the left but the late pressure did eventually tell, with the hosts taking the lead just before the break.

Christian Fassnacht set the goal up by dinking in a cross from the right and Stacey was in the perfect place to fire home from close range following a fortunate deflection off defender Mehdi Leris.

Stoke almost got back on level terms from their next attack but Tyrese Campbell screwed his shot wide from a good position after being set up by Wouter Burger.

The visitors started the second half brightly, with Campbell having a decent effort blocked, but Norwich looked comfortable enough after their excellent finish to the first.

The Canaries gave a debut to on-loan South Korea international Hwang Ui-jo as they went looking for a second, which nearly arrived on the hour mark when Fassnacht lifted the ball just over after muscling his way through.

Stoke still posed a threat, as they emphasised on 77 minutes when skipper Josh Laurent curled an excellent effort just over from distance, and they almost grabbed a point in the final minute of stoppage time, with substitute Dwight Gayle making a mess of a close-range opportunity.