Huckerby, twice rejected by Kevin Keegan, won the game for Norwich with a 40th minute strike. This came after a comfortable 10 minutes which should have seen Ashton get a penalty for a quite clear elbow. From the 15th minute on though it was all Norwich, Clayton Ince saved us twice with a one handed save from a Mackay shot - which was heading to the far right corner before a breath taking one handed scoop off the line silenced the Norwich crowd who thought they had took the lead.
By half time Norwich were dominating and not much changed at half time; things did take a better shape when David Vaughan and Billy Jones both were subbed through injury with Kenny Lunt and, surprisingly, Luke Varney replacing them.
Varney had two glorious chances; first minute of the second half saw him just too short to get onto the end of a superb Ashton ball, when free on goal. Then with 15 minutes left the former Quorn striker tripped over himself which a clear sight on goal from 12 yards.
Norwich though were in firm control over what happened and pushed up within a click of the fingers. They could have had a few more as Ince started to lose his calm whilst Ashton remained the only magical kid on the pitch for the Alex.
No-one but Ashton played exceptionally well and was a plain and simple defeat, the 7th away defeat of the season. Ouch. We do remain 12th though and well away from the relegation zone and in sight of the play-offs, a win on Saturday will put us back in with a chance but as I touched on before the Norwich game... away form needs to improve FAST!
FULL REPORT ON SUNDAY....