Canaries sick as parrots after loss to Stoke

Stoke 3 Norwich 1

Norwich will enter September without a Coca-Cola Championship win to their name following this defeat at Stoke, where Darren Huckerby’s sending off for foul and abusive language was a clear indication of the growing frustration in the Canaries’ camp.

A brief spell at the end of the opening period aside, Norwich were second best all evening and were 2-1 behind six minutes into the second half when Huckerby seemed to be cleanly tackled by Dave Brammer only for the striker to be so forceful with his protests to referee Mike Pike that he was shown a straight red card.

Johan Boskamp’s promising new team led at half-time thanks to goals from Martin Kolar and Kevin Harper, either side of Dean Ashton’s equaliser, and Mamady Sidibe made victory certain with 22 minutes left.

For all three scorers it was a first goal in Stoke colours.