MATCH STATS NORWICH CITY : Gallacher, Colin, Fleming, Doherty, Boyle, Croft, Safri, Robinson, Huckerby, Dublin, Earnshaw. Subs: Camp, Shackell (for Boyle, 62), Thorne (for Dublin, 65), Hughes (for Croft, 70), Ryan Jarvis. BURNELY: Jensen, Duff, McGreal, Sinclair, Harley, Elliott, Hyde, James O'Connor, Jones, Gray, Noel-Williams. Subs: Mahon, Garreth O'Connor, McCann (for Jones, 86), Lafferty (for Noel-Williams, 86), Foster. SCORERS: Norwich: Earnshaw (82) Burnley: O'Connor (32), Gray (45, 64), Mahon (89). MAN OF THE MATCH EN & EDP: Robert Earnshaw ATTENDANCE: 24,717 REFEREE: P Crossley (Ken ADDED TIME: First half: 2 mins. Second half: 4 mins. YELLOW CARDS: Burnley: Sinclair (foul on Huckerby, 38), O’Connor (foul on Huckerby, 55) RED CARDS: Norwich: Doherty (professional foul on Gray, 57) SHOTS ON TARGET: Norwich 4, Burnley 6 SHOTS OFF TARGET: Norwich 4, Burnley 7 CORNERS: Norwich 4, Burnley 12 FOULS:  Norwich 6, Burnley 19 OFFSIDES:  Norwich 4, Burnley 1

Sunday October 1, 2006
CHRIS LAKEY & DAVID CUFFLEY

When Nigel Worthington was, effectively, given two games to save his job, the importance of the game against Burnley was ratcheted up a few notches.

Okay, so Delia and Michael said two games, which meant QPR in a fortnight’s time as well, but everyone knew, just knew, that if City failed to beat Burnley, Worthington’s head was on the block.

The obvious conclusion is that this game would be a cracker. After all, wouldn’t the 11 men in yellow and green be busting a gut to keep Worthington in a job? He signed 10 of them – only Craig Fleming was already here when Worthington arrived and it’s not as if the City stalwart was ever going to let anyone down is it?

Beat Burnley, beat them well, and everything would start to become a little rosier in the Carrow Road garden.

But what happened? Instead of playing for their manager, they’d have been better off playing Championship Manager on their PlayStations. That City lost so comprehensively meant the axe came down on Worthington’s head with almost unseemly haste.

Again it was a case of City simply skulking off when the chips were down.

Last week they played like schoolboys in a huff at Plymouth. Against Burnley, after some initial bright exchanges, they collapsed again.

The problem that the added importance of the game brought with it was that instead of Carrow Road shaking to the rafters with the sound of 24,000 fans shouting the place down, it seemed to shake with some decidedly strained nerves – of the players and the fans and presumably the manager and his backroom staff too.

In the end, the air was thick with negative energy – and didn’t it show?

Darren Huckerby was brought back into the side in place of Paul McVeigh down the left flank, but his fitness level was questionable.

True, he showed a few bursts of pace, but not as many as you’d expect, and the feeling, particularly in view of Worthington’s post-match praise, was that Huckerby had other things on his mind when he declared himself fit to play – including loyalty to a man who made him a very big fish in a small pond.

Michael Duff, unmarked from Frank Sinclair’s free-kick, strikes the post in the fifth minute when he should have done better.

The only rival to that mantle is Robert Earnshaw who, for the second game in a row, managed to put the ball in the net when a game was all but lost. That’s eight in 10 starts for the Welsh striker – you just have to hope that sort of form, coupled with a laudable never-say-die attitude, isn’t going to earn him a move away in January.

Aside from Huckerby and Earnshaw, there really wasn’t that much to cheer about. Dion Dublin, partnering Earnshaw in a changed 4-4-2 formation, struggled, Lee Croft worked hard down the right but yet again failed to finish the match, while the midfield two, Youssef Safri and Carl Robinson, were really out of sorts. Hardly a ball was won, and too many were given away cheaply and that allowed Steve Jones and Wade Elliott to have so much time and space it was almost suicidal.

By the time Burnley went ahead, City should have been two goals to the good, but a three-on-one break ended when Earnshaw shot into the side netting and then Dublin failed to get any purchase on a lovely pass into the box by Huckerby.

The warning signs were there for City as early as the fifth minute when Michael Duff, unmarked from Frank Sinclair’s free-kick, struck the post when he should have done better.

The Canaries’ first opportunity came after 13 minutes when Lee Croft put Earnshaw through but he fired wide with Huckerby waiting in space at the far post.

Nigel Worthington realises his reign as Norwich City manager is coming to an end.

Paul Gallacher produced an excellent save to keep the scores level after 26 minutes, beating away a left-foot shot by Micah Hyde.

At the other end, two opportunities fell Dublin’s way in the space of a minute, courtesy of Huckerby – and one feared the worst when they went begging. First, after 27 minutes, Huckerby crossed into the box where Dublin completely failed to make contact with his left foot. In City’s next attack, Huckerby’s cross was aimed towards the far post, but Dublin missed his header.

City were punished after 32 minutes when left winger Steve Jones, who ran them ragged for much of the afternoon, picked out the unmarked James O’Connor and he swept the ball home.

Huckerby came close to levelling five minutes later when his shot took a deflection off O’Connor and sent ’keeper Brian Jensen flying to his left to save.

But the killer blow came on 45 minutes when Wade Elliott’s cross from the right was headed home by Gray while the City defence suffered another bout of musical statues.

That was on the stroke of half-time – and it was just about the last we saw of Norwich for the day.

Half-time: Norwich City 0, Burnley 2

Earnshaw briefly raised the temperature two minutes after the break with a free-kick that flew just over the top, but the contest was well and truly killed off after 59 minutes when Doherty departed the scene. Given the slip by Gray, the defender lunged desperately at the Burnley man and brought him down with a combination of head and body. It was as obvious a red as Rudolph’s nose and, down to 10 men, City were beaten.

Gary Doherty sees red for a foul on Andy Gray to leave City to try and come back from 2-0 down with 10 men.

On the hour, Gallacher saved again from a Jon Harley free-kick, but after 63 minutes, Gray was celebrating his second goal as Jones played a one-two with Gifton Noel Williams and presented the striker with a simple chance at the far post to make it 3-0.

By then, Jason Shackell had replaced Patrick Boyle in defence, and Worthington made two further substitutions as Dublin and the tiring Croft made way for Peter Thorne and Andy Hughes, but in the end the defeat could have been much heavier.

A last-ditch block by Jürgen Colin foiled Noel-Williams and Sinclair headed on to the bar, before City cut the deficit eight minutes from time thanks to their two most tireless performers, Huckerby’s run setting up Earnshaw for a thumping right-foot finish from the edge of the area.

Robert Earnshaw's goal celebration is more muted than normal as he shakes hands with Andy Hughes after scoring his eighth goal of the season.

That Earnshaw was able to get a goal in the final 10 minutes – with a big helping hand from Huckerby – says a lot about the player. By that time he was practically taking on Burnley single-handedly, including one belting run from attack to help out in defence as his team-mates sagged.

But the last act of Worthington’s reign came in the last minute of normal time as Kyle Lafferty’s header was helped on by Gray for substitute Alan Mahon to fire past Gallacher.

It wasn’t City's day, it wasn’t even Burnley’s day. It was a day which brought no satisfaction for anyone involved with Norwich City. Even those who were adamant Worthington should go shouldn’t be happy that they are now a club without a manager.

Result: Norwich City 1, Burnley 4