Norwich City 1 Brentford 2: Vibe brace the difference

A first-half brace from fit-again forward Lasse Vibe helped Brentford to register just their second win from seven matches on Friday and leave Norwich City struggling in the bottom half of the Championship after losing 2-1 in front of their own fans.

Brentford opened the scoring in the 36th minute of an evenly matched contest at Carrow Road, where Romaine Sawyers found Vibe, back in the starting XI after recovering from a hamstring problem, in space inside the area and the striker duly picked out the bottom corner of the net from 15 yards out.

And the same pair combined again to good effect five minutes later, Sawyers’ well-judged throughball releasing Vibe to finish clinically past Angus Gunn, as Norwich were punished in the absence of the injured Wes Hoolahan and Cameron Jerome.

Nelson Oliveira drilled home a low strike in added time to make it a nervy finish for the away team, but the goal arrived too late for the Canaries to claim anything from the game.

YESSSSSSSSS@LasseVibe’s double secures the points at Carrow Road#NCFCBEES pic.twitter.com/yLqIDTRDSc

— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) December 22, 2017

The victory saw Brentford climb to 11th place in the table ahead of this weekend’s other fixtures, while Norwich, who have managed only one win from their last 10 games, are 16th.