Ten-man Stoke City held Norwich to a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road after Bradeley Johnson gave the host’s the lead, Jon Walters’ penalty pulled the visitors level before he was sent off minutes later for a challenge on Alex Tettey.
Mark Hughes was forced to make a change to the team that got to 1-0 win over Arsenal last weekend with Peter Odemwingie in for the suspended Charlie Adam whilst Chris Houghton recalled Ricky Van Wolfswinkle to his starting line-up.
The first real chance of the game fell to Peter Crouch, after being fed in by Glenn Whelan, he found himself one on one with the keeper but he didn’t put enough power behind his shot and it was easy for John Ruddy to save.
Eric Pieters put in a cross for Marko Arnautovic but he hit it on the half volley and it sailed over the bar before Geoff Cameron surged forward into the box to set up Crouch but the striker couldn’t reach the oncoming ball.
Norwich hardly troubled the Stoke defence in the opening stages as Stoke controlled the possession but lacked the finish in front of goal.
Nathan Redmond then set up Robert Snodgrass on the edge of the area but the Scottish International couldn’t take advantage of the position he found himself in and fired wide.
Wes Hoolahan then played the ball through to Snodgrass again in the area, this time Asmir Begovic had to pull off a fine save to deny him and keep the game level.
Stoke were awarded a free kick in Adam territory when Odemwingie was brought down on the edge of the area, Arnautovic stepped up and wasted the opportunity as Stoke continued to lack that finish in front of goal.
Norwich came out fighting for the second half and where awarded a free kick after Marc Wilson brought down Snodgrass near the corner flag, the Scottish international took the free kick and Johnson jumped up to poke the ball in from six yards to break the deadlock and put the pressure back on Stoke.
The Canaries kept up the pressure after going in front and Redmond thought he had doubled their advantage when he unleashed a dive from the edge of the area but Begovic got down to make a finger tip save.
Hughes brought on John Guidetti for Odemwingie in an attempt to see Stoke score away from home but it seemed efforts were in vain.
Guidetti wasn’t on the pitch for long when he won Stoke a penalty after he was brought down by Sébastien Bassong in the area, Walters stepped up for the second time in two days and much like last week against Arsenal the Irishman side footed the ball into the top corner to pull Stoke back into the game.
Walters went from hero to villain in the space of a few minutes when his tackle on Tettey was judged to be worthy of a red card by referee Andre Marriner and Stoke were down to 10 men.
Guidetti was then subbed off to Stephen Ireland and seemed to fully understand the situation as he took up his place on the bench.
The hosts piled on the pressure in the closing stages and took advantage of the extra man but couldn’t score the goal that would have seen them climb above Stoke in the table.
