“I’m kaput,” said Felix Magath after Hugo Rodallega’s goal closed the gap on Norwich to two points at the bottom of the Premier League.  

“There was a lot of pressure on the game today and you could see that in the performance of the players,” said a relieved Magath. “Norwich were the better team.”

They had goalkeeper David Stockdale to thank that they were still in the game when Rodallega turned in Lewis Holtby’s free-kick in the 40th minute.
Stockdale produced a marvelous point-blank save from Ricky van Wolfswinkel’s volley and then managed to turn away Leroy Fer’s header from the resulting corner. Robert Snodgrass then hit the bar with a free-kick.

The second half saw more of the same. Rodallega cleared Michael Turner’s goalbound header off the line and Brede Hangeland made a fantastic tackle when Snodgrass had the goal at his mercy.

Neil Adams, who replaced Chris Hughton in the Norwich hot seat last week, tried to see the positives: “It’s hard to take. I thought we were tactically spot on and dominated the game, we cannot fault the desire and commitment of my players.

“I think we had five or six fantastic chances but we couldn’t convert them. The dressing room is full of desperately sad footballers.”

Norwich are in danger of relegation largely because of their failure to score goals. They have managed just 26 in 34 games. Their run-in does not offer much in the way of hope with games against

Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal coming up.

The return of Rodallega and the decision to pick Stockdale in front of Maarten Stekelenburgh in goal  are paying dividends for the German manager who has never suffered relegation.