West Brom beat Norwich 1-0
West Brom secured their first points of the Premier League season as an early goal from Peter Odemwingie beat Norwich 1-0 at Carrow Road on Sunday.
West Brom secured their first points of the Premier League season as an early goal from Peter Odemwingie beat Norwich 1-0 at Carrow Road on Sunday.
Odemwingie was making his first start of the season after an ankle injury and the Nigerian striker had an eventful return.
He opened the scoring in the third minute after confusion in the Norwich defence but then went from hero to zero as his second half penalty was saved by young Norwich goalkeeper Declan Rudd.
That spot-kick miss couldn't spark a Norwich fightback however and Roy Hodgson's team held on to end a run of three successive defeats, while the Canaries are still waiting for their first victory after last season's promotion from the Championship.
Two of Albion's three league defeats came against Manchester United and Chelsea and Norwich were unlikely to pose quite the same threat as those two title challengers.
Even so, West Brom wouldn't have expected to be gifted the lead after just three minutes thanks to a mistake in the Canaries' defence.
A long ball from Nicky Shorey caught the Norwich rearguard flat-footed and Ritchie De Laet's panicked header fell short of the hesitant Rudd, allowing Odemwingie to nip in ahead of the keeper and slot into the far corner.
Norwich looked for an immediate response, with Andrew Surman's near-post effort kicked out by Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster and Grant Holt unable to keep his follow-up effort on target.
Rudd had to be alert to block a stinging effort from Odemwingie after the Nigerian surged clear of the home defence.
Hodgson's team kept pressing and Graham Dorrans hit the post with a fierce 25-yard effort just before half-time.
Canaries boss Paul Lambert made a double change with 20 minutes left as captain Grant Holt was replaced by Steve Steve Morison, and James Vaughan came on for Chris Martin to make his first appearance since his move from Everton.
But West Brom had a chance to extend their lead when Steven Reid went down under minimal contact from Morison and referee Mark Halsey pointed to the spot.
Odemwingie smashed the penalty towards the bottom left corner, but Rudd dived full stretch to produce a excellent save.
Morison nearly made Albion pay when he met Marc Tierney's cross with a header that flashed wide. Then in stoppage time Vaughan was floored by an elbow from Gabriel Tamas at a corner but Halsey waved play on.