Bristol Rovers defender Daniel Jones admitted that Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of runaway champions Norwich summed up why the Canaries will be lifting the League One title this weekend.
The comfortable West Country success was a record 12th away win of the season and it also takes City to 95 points, one better than the 94 gained when Nigel Worthington’s men lifted the Championship trophy in 2004.
The Canaries went into the break two goals to the good after Chris Martin and Oli Johnson capitalised on a shaky home backline and Stephen Hughes profited on some more woeful Rovers defending to tap home a third in the 67th minute.
And Jones, who is on-loan from Premier League Wolves, admitted he was at fault for the first, when his misplaced pass was picked up by Martin, who promptly fed Anthony McNamee.
Though Byron Anthony got in a tackle, the ball ran loose for 23-goal Martin and he fired his shot past Mikkel Andersen. 1-0 and the Canaries never looked back…
“It was stupid and down to a loss of concentration by me. That’s probably why I don’t play centre-half very often,” Jones told the Bristol Evening Post.
“Every goal they scored was down to sloppy play by us. And for their second one I actually got to the ball but it bounced over my leg and there wasn’t much I could do about it.”
But as careless as Rovers were in defence, Jones could only praise their conquerors after a very one-sided affair at the Memorial Ground.
They really did show their class to move a whopping 12 points clear of second-placed Leeds United, who fell to a 1-0 defeat at Charlton, and even though Paul Lambert made a few changes to his line-up, the Canaries were far too strong.
“Norwich are a good team and even though they rested a few players, they showed the strength in depth they have. That’s why they are champions.
“They were very clinical in front of goal and although we had chances, we didn’t score – that was the tale of the afternoon.”
Don’t go too far away this week as we’ll have a column or two for you to enjoy, as well as all the news and views from Colney ahead of Saturday’s League One finale against Carlisle at Carrow Road.
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