Norwich end winless home run against Hull

Second-half goals from Gabriel Sara and Josh Sergeant ended Norwich's run of six home league games without a win with a 3-1 victory over Hull at Carrow Road.

Sara put the Canaries in front just before the hour mark, scoring from the edge of the box, before Sergeant wrapped up the win a minute from time with a right-footed strike that Matt Ingram could not get a hand on.

The win means Norwich move up to eighth in the table, three points off the play-offs, while Hull drop down to 12th.

Carrow Road had been fallow ground for Norwich with their last win at home coming on 29 October against Stoke City. Hull, meanwhile, had been enjoying a strong period on the road having only lost once in their last nine away matches.

The hosts came in off the back of two defeats and manager David Wagner made two changes, including starting Onel Hernandez and dropping top-scorer Teemu Pukki to the bench.

The switch paid off, with Hernandez key to a lively Norwich attack, although for all the action around the Hull box in the opening 10 minutes they lacked any real threat with their final touch.

Against the run of play, it was the Tigers who took the lead as Norwich made a mess of defending Hull's first corner. After the initial set-piece was cleared, Regan Slater returned the ball back into the area. Angus Gunn came off his line but got into a muddle with one of his own defenders, leaving Greaves to slot the ball into an unguarded goal.

The lead was short-lived as Hernandez quickly broke into the box and pulled the ball back to Dowell, who had Greaves to thank as the Hull captain's outstretched boot diverted his shot into the net.

The traffic kept going Norwich's way as a lovely back-heeled pass from Sara set up a Dimitris Giannoulis cross, but Dowell scuffed his subsequent shot wide, while Sergeant saw a shot deflected and a header go over the bar that should have been on target.

The left wing was a constant route through for Norwich and they finally broke the deadlock midway through the second-half after another break reached Hernandez, who coolly kept the ball under pressure, before passing back to Sara to strike home from distance.

They got the ball in the net again but Grant Hanley's header was flagged offside, while Dowell poorly missed the target in a one-on-one with Ingram.

Sergeant eventually added the extras with 89 minutes on the clock, slotting inside the far post to inflict Hull's heaviest defeat since they were beaten 3-1 by Middlesbrough at the start of November.

Norwich City manager David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"It's important [to get the home win] but not only to have the first win, I think what counts for me is the manner of the win.

"I think we can say we were back to our norm, to our strength, to what we have shown in some games before today. From my point of view it was one of our best, maybe the best which we've seen.

"We've shown that we didn't get affected by being 1-0 down, something we have spoken about that we have to trust and believe in ourselves, that we stick to our principles, and this is what the players have done.

"And then obviously they scored three wonderful goals, had a lot of further good clear-cut chances, and a lot of box entries, defended very well on the front foot, kept them away from our goal. Overall it was a very good performance."

Hull City manager Liam Rosenior told BBC Radio Humberside:

"I'm always unhappy when we lose and I wasn't celebrating the first goal because I felt we started the game shakily. They started the game on the front foot, they really pressed us hard, which we expected and they came on to a really good game.

"He's a very good manager, they've got very good players at this level, and I think they'll be the first to say they probably expect to be higher up the table than they are.

"That's no excuse for us. I felt we lost too many battles in terms of holding the ball up front or winning second balls - every single second ball seemed to land for them and they've got a lot of quality and they scored some quality goals today.

"We didn't really lay a glove on them apart from the first goal."