Wednesday 8 April 2015 12:11, UK
Alex Neil was happy with a "professional" display from Norwich after Sheffield Wednesday were beaten, with the only negative being the suspension of Bradley Johnson.
After scoring twice just before the break to secure a comfortable win that took his side into the Championship's top two for the first time since October, Johnson picked up a needless yellow card in a low-key second period.
He was booked by referee Carl Boyeson for re-entering the field without permission after receiving treatment for a minor knock and with 10 yellows to his name this season he will now miss the forthcoming trips to Bolton and his former club Leeds.
The loss of the 13-goal midfielder is clearly a blow for Norwich but it did not spoil the enjoyment of another great result for manager Alex Neil.
"It's obviously disappointing to lose Bradley for a couple of games but it is a squad game and we have other good players who can come in," he said.
"This gives someone else the chance to impress and it will be up to him to take it.
"It's a shame because it looked like an avoidable yellow card to me. Players always like to get back on the pitch quickly and whether than warranted a yellow card I don't know. But it is what it is and we have to move on."
As for the game itself, Neil said: "I thought we played really well in the first half and had two goals to show for it. In the second we didn't move the ball as quickly as I would have liked at times but we did a good professional job in seeing the game out and I never felt we were in danger of losing control.
"I don't know how important it is to be in the top two with five games still to be played, but the good thing is we now have points in hand on those teams below us and if we keep winning we will stay in the top two. We just need to focus on winning our games, starting with the next one at Bolton."
Norwich went in front on 33 minutes when Johnson capitalised on some poor Wednesday defending to head a miscued clearance past Keiran Westwood.
He then doubled City's advantage on the stroke of half-time, lashing home from close range after the Owls failed to deal with a Graham Dorrans corner.
Lloyd Isgrove and Caolan Lavery both missed good chances for the visitors when the score was goalless, a fact not lost on Wednesday boss Stuart Gray.
"You talk about defining moments in games and you saw two of them there," he said. "If we had put those chances away we would be talking about a very different game right now.
"But we didn't and then we contribute to our own downfall with some poor defending for their two goals. For the first one we should have got the ball away long before it came into our box and for the second we switched off at a corner after dealing with them well before that. We have got 16 clean sheets so we have generally defended well this season, but not today.
"I also felt Norwich had an advantage by having an extra day's rest when we had to play on Saturday. It would be fairer if we all played on the same day.
"Now we have got to make sure our season doesn't fizzle out. We want to finish as high as possible while we also have games against other sides chasing promotion so I am sure that won't be the case."
