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Norwich condemned relegation-threatened Leicester to a fourth successive home Championship defeat to end Gary Rowett’s unbeaten start as manager.
The second-half substitute Anis Ben Slimane drilled Norwich ahead just six minutes after coming off the bench at the King Power Stadium before Ali Ahmed’s close-range finish sealed a seventh win in nine league games.
The result extended Leicester’s winless league run to nine matches and kept them third-bottom but further strengthened Norwich’s bid for survival as Philippe Clement’s in-form side climbed 11 points clear of the drop zone.
Rowett had seen his side claim creditable away draws in his first two games since taking charge and they started brightly enough, with Ricardo Pereira almost sending Bobby De Cordova-Reid clear, only for his through-ball to hit the midfielder’s heel.
With former head coach Enzo Maresca watching from the stands, Leicester’s final ball lacked quality and composure, summed up when Harry Winks overhit a diagonal pass, aimed for Luke Thomas, straight out of play.
Slimane came on for the dangerous Paris Maghoma just after the hour and within minutes forced a brilliant save from Jakub Stolarczyk after Ben Chrisene’s cross had deflected into his path.
But there was nothing the Leicester goalkeeper could do to stop his next effort as Slimane combined with Sam Field on the edge of the area and drilled a fine shot into the bottom left-hand corner after 68 minutes.
The goal extended Leicester’s run without a clean sheet to 29 games and worse was to follow nine minutes later. Kellen Fisher was allowed time and space from a set piece by a dozing defence to advance and cross, with Stolarczyk deflecting Errol Mundle-Smith’s shot across goal to the back post where an unmarked Ahmed poked home.
Matt Crooks’ smash-and-grab goal secured Hull a 1-0 victory at Portsmouth to match a 60-year record. The Tigers only had two shots but made them count as Crooks capitalised on a defensive mix-up to make it five away wins in a row; the last time Hull had won as many on the road was 1966.
It also made sure they kept the pressure on the top two in the automatic promotion race, while Pompey lost back-to-back home matches for just the third time since their return to the second tier.
The Tigers came out of the traps quickly and should have opened the scoring after 44 seconds. Lewis Koumas got down the left side and sent a low ball in the box for Joe Gelhardt, but he fired straight at Nicolas Schmid. Oli McBurnie headed the rebound home but was flagged offside.
From then on in the first half, Pompey had 69% of the possession and all 14 of the other shots in the half. Then, out of nowhere in the second half, the Tigers took the lead, as Crooks was gifted a tap-in after a double Adrian Segecic error.
The Australian’s miscontrol put him in danger before a short backpass allowed McBurnie to close down keeper Schmid and the ball popped up for Crooks to lash home for his fourth goal of the season.
Derby revived their playoff challenge with an impressive second-half comeback to beat Blackburn 3-1 at Pride Park. The visitors led through Hayden Carter’s header but Ben Brereton Díaz struck against his former club to turn the game in Derby’s favour.
Matt Clarke punished tentative defending before the impressive Derry Murkin claimed his second assist to provide Rhian Brewster with the goal to seal victory and leave Rovers in relegation trouble.
On Friday, Jeremy Ngakia’s 77th-minute strike secured a 2-1 win for Watford over Bristol City at Ashton Gate. The visitors took a seventh-minute lead when Luca Kjerrumgaard fired home from six yards. But the home side were level in the 36th minute when Scott Twine powered a close-range header past Egil Selvik.
A draw looked the likely outcome, but Ngakia found the top corner with a sweetly struck right-foot shot from 25 yards out.
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