{"id":243522,"date":"2026-01-17T18:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243522\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:59:08","slug":"wrexham-1-2-norwich-city-jan-17-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243522\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrexham 1-2 Norwich City (Jan 17, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Jovon Makama<\/a> 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<\/a> 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<\/a> following the Canadian winger’s arrival from Vancouver Whitecaps<\/a>.<\/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

\"JovonJovon Makama celebrates scoring Norwich’s second goal against Wrexham.<\/p>\n

Lewis Storey\/Getty Images<\/p>\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<\/a>, 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<\/a> made a fine close-range stop from Broadhead.<\/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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-243522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}