Struggling Norwich end away goal drought with Everton win
(Reuters) - Norwich City's Todd Cantwell and Dennis Srbeny scored rare away goals to give the strugglers a 2-0 win at Everton, a result which ended a run of seven games without a win and saw them climb off the bottom of the Premier League table.
The home supporters voiced their displeasure towards under-fire Everton boss Marco Silva who slammed his players, saying they were afraid to play football.
Norwich, with one of the top flight's poorest defences and without an away goal since Teemo Pukki's strike in a 4-1 loss to Liverpool in their Aug. 9 opener, looked to stop an Everton side with three wins in their last five games in all competitions.
After a goalless first half, Everton had a number of chances early in the second but it was Norwich who took the lead in the 55th minute, Pukki teeing up the onrushing Cantwell to slot home confidently.
Emboldened by the goal, the visitors enjoyed a brief period of dominance but soon found themselves under pressure again as Everton poured forward.
Substitute Seamus Coleman slotted in on the right for Everton and sent a string of crosses and passes into the box as Gylfi Sigurdsson, Cenk Tosun and Alex Iwobi all went close.
Srbeny then replaced Pukki and scored almost immediately, his stoppage-time goal securing Norwich's first away win of the season to take them up two places to 18th on 10 points, while Everton slid to 15th on 14.
"It feels amazing to get our first away win. It has been coming for a while but it feels good to get some away points," striker Pukki said. "The clean sheet is really important, that’s what we came for."
Everton have league games against Leicester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in the run-up to Christmas so Portuguese boss Silva will have to act quickly to get his erratic side back on track.
"You cannot play football on a good level and create chances and take the right decisions if you are not calm, if you are so afraid to play football," he told the BBC.
"It's really tough for us, a very, very disappointing afternoon for us, for our fans as well. We are trying to get some consistency as a team," he added.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Tony Lawrence)
