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The best yet for Farke after City's 2-1 Owls' fightback
Teemu Pukki smashed Norwich City level against Sheffield Wednesday before Todd Cantwell notched a winner - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
Daniel Farke insisted the play-off place is now in the bag after Norwich City’s ‘best win of the season’ in a 2-1 Championship comeback at Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.
Farke has been preaching caution but an eighth straight league win restored their 10 point lead over the pack, and convinced the head coach a top six finish is sealed.
Now Farke wants to finish the job, after Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell produced top drawer finishes at Hillsborough to cancel out Jordan Rhodes’ early opener.
“For me the best win of the season so far,” he said. “We spoke about needing 80 points to be safe in the play-offs. Let’s be honest, with this win and 79 points we don’t need to be worried any more about that. We will definitely finish in the top six, we are on a good path to finish in the top four.
"Of course the spotlight games earn a lot of praise, or dominant wins like Luton Town, but this win, after a week where all the other coaches are praising us and congratulating us for the title.
"Well of course the players hear all that as well but against a side so committed, on such an unbelievably difficult pitch, and after an early setback, we responded.”
Farke insisted there was plenty of cool heads in the Norwich dressing room at the break, despite a first half which did not go to plan.
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“I didn’t say too much. We spoke about some soft skills and some tactical changes to try and give them more problems,” he said. “It is one thing for me to speak about this but the players had to bring it on the pitch. All the praise goes to them. How we responded was great credit to the boys.
“It is easy to win a game when you are 2-0 up early. I was a bit annoyed with the time wasting as well from them, but they knew how big a result this could be. We had to keep the nerves. We couldn’t lose the head, show any disappointment. The energy we showed was priceless.
“You could also see it in the quality of the goals we scored. Two great goals but we prepared the situations a lot better. You can see how Emi Buendia wins the ball back for Todd’s finish. It was then a quality strike but Emi’s work allowed Todd to shine.
“But we have another tough week with games against Nottingham and Blackburn.
“Now is the time to be smart, to grind out as many points as we can and then we can rest and dream about a bit more in the international break. Right now, I want us to keep going.”
