{"id":3418,"date":"2026-01-17T18:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wrexham-1-2-norwich-city-jan-17-2026-game-analysis\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:16:32","slug":"wrexham-1-2-norwich-city-jan-17-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wrexham-1-2-norwich-city-jan-17-2026-game-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrexham 1-2 Norwich City (Jan 17, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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Norwich inflicted Wrexham’s first English League Championship home defeat since September with a 2-1 victory at the SToK Cae Ras.<\/p>\n

Anis Ben Slimane gave Norwich a ninth-minute lead before the in-form Sam Smith restored parity before the break.<\/p>\n

Jovon Makama struck after 58 minutes to take his Championship goals tally into double figures and end Wrexham’s 10-game unbeaten home league run that stretched back to Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

Norwich remain in the relegation zone despite an upturn in results since Philippe Clement succeeded the sacked Liam Manning in November, but are within a point of Blackburn and Portsmouth in 22nd.<\/p>\n

Wrexham were on a high after knocking Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup and four successive league wins had taken them to within touching distance of the playoff places.<\/p>\n

The Canaries were unbeaten in their previous three away games and handed a debut to Ali Ahmed following the Canadian winger’s arrival from Vancouver Whitecaps.<\/p>\n

Ahmed made an instant impact by taking Pelle Mattsson’s pass in his stride and finding Slimane, who confidently side-footed home his first goal of the season.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Jovon<\/div>
Jovon Makama celebrates scoring Norwich’s second goal against Wrexham.<\/figcaption>
\n

<\/svg>Lewis Storey\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/section>\n

It was almost even better for Ahmed three minutes later when Slimane returned the favour and the Wrexham crossbar was shaken from 20 yards.<\/p>\n

Wrexham had been slow to settle but they slowly warmed to their task, and Josh Windass was just unable to get a proper connection on Nathan Broadhead’s centre.<\/p>\n

The equaliser arrived moments later as Smith pulled away from his marker to divert Max Cleworth’s cross into the corner of the net with a fine header.<\/p>\n

Smith spent most of the first half of the season as backup striker to Kieffer Moore, starting only one league game before Christmas.<\/p>\n

But Moore’s recent absence to a hamstring injury has allowed Smith first-team opportunities that has now brought three goals in four games.<\/p>\n

Broadhead volleyed a George Dobson corner into Windass, standing in an offside position, and Smith headed over as Wrexham finished the first half on top.<\/p>\n

There was an 18-minute delay soon after the restart following a medical emergency in the main stand.<\/p>\n

Referee Will Finnie led the players from the field and when they returned Norwich discovered their rhythm.<\/p>\n

Arthur Okonkwo denied Makama with the aid of George Thomason’s last-ditch challenge, but was helpless when Norwich’s top scorer buried Kenny McLean’s pass with a powerful right-footed finish.<\/p>\n

Makama fired over when presented with a chance to seal matters, but the points were safe and heading back to Norfolk when Vladan Kovacevic made a fine close-range stop from Broadhead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norwich inflicted Wrexham’s first English League Championship home defeat since September with a 2-1 victory at the SToK Cae Ras. Anis Ben Slimane gave Norwich a ninth-minute lead before the in-form Sam Smith restored parity before the break. Jovon Makama struck after 58 minutes to take his Championship goals tally into double figures and end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-transfers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/soccer.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}