“Under-Fire Norwich Boss Liam Manning Breaks Silence After Stormy Hull Defeat”

Manning Apologises After Norwich’s Seventh Straight Home Defeat

Norwich City head coach Liam Manning apologised to supporters following his team’s 2–0 loss to Hull City, a result that marked their seventh consecutive home defeat of the season at Carrow Road.

Despite a promising start, the Canaries faded after the break, with second-half goals from Joe Gelhardt (49) and Darko Gyabi (87) leaving them stuck in the Championship relegation zone after 13 games.

Boos and protests rang around the stadium at full time, with fans directing their anger toward both Manning and sporting director Ben Knapper.

The Norwich boss left for the dressing room immediately after the whistle but later admitted he should have faced the crowd.

“That was poor from me and I apologise,” Manning said. “Sometimes the disappointment gets the better of you. I didn’t want to go out there and make things worse, but it was wrong not to go on the pitch.”

Reflecting on the match, he added:

“It followed a familiar pattern. We started well, with purpose and created plenty of chances – but we didn’t take them.

In the second half, they made changes, as we knew they would, and we failed to adapt. The first goal was one of the softest I’ve seen at this level.

From there, we came under pressure and didn’t handle it well. When you’re struggling, you have to fight and scrap, and we didn’t do that enough.

To go from a strong first half to such a poor second half is very hard to accept. I’m hurting, I know this run is unacceptable. I’m giving everything to turn it around, but something has to change, and those discussions will happen.”

Norwich were left to rue a string of missed opportunities. Josh Sargent fired wide from close range after just five minutes, Jeffrey Schlupp struck the crossbar, and Oscar Schwartau squandered a good chance before halftime.

Hull punished them four minutes into the second half when Matt Crooks’ header exposed the home defence. Gelhardt outmuscled Harry Darling and finished calmly for his sixth goal of the campaign.

The visitors sealed the points late on when substitute Gyabi bundled in Cody Drameh’s cross on the rebound to record his first goal for the Tigers.

Hull manager Sergej Jakirović admitted his side had to rely on fortune early on.

“We just survived the first half,” he said. “They were much better than us, in and out of possession, and we were lucky they didn’t score.

We had to change something, and our adjustments at half-time gave us more stability. Once we got the first goal, confidence grew.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a great team effort. The players showed character and fight to earn a massive win and three important points.”