Swansea vs Norwich Preview

Swansea v NorwichNpower ChampionshipVenue: Liberty StadiumDate: Saturday, 9 AprilKick-off: 1720 BSTCoverage: Watch highlights on The Football League Show; Listen on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC local radio; text commentary on the BBC Sport website
TEAM NEWS
Swansea forward Stephen Dobbie, who missed last weekend`s defeat at Preston because of a back problem, has been passed fit to return.

Angel Rangel was only a substitute for that game as he had been suffering from illness, but has now fully recovered.

Norwich are assessing the fitness of Wes Hoolahan, who picked up a hamstring strain against Scunthorpe.

Chris Martin is back in training after his recent hamstring problem, but lacks match fitness.

MATCH PREVIEW
Second-placed Norwich travel to fourth-placed Swansea for a crucial match in the battle for automatic promotion. Norwich recently replaced the Swans in the top two and their lead over them could be cut to a point or extended to seven points, depending on the result.

While Swansea have hit a sticky patch, winning only one of their last five matches, Norwich, who have had more attempts on goal this season than any other second-tier team, have been in scintillating form. Paul Lambert's men are unbeaten in nine matches, and have lost only one of their last 18.

A victory this weekend would be a massive step towards the Premier League for the East Anglian side. In fact, it would leave them needing a maximum of five more victories to seal the return to the top flight after a six-year absence.

But their credentials are likely to be tested to the full at the Liberty Stadium, which Swansea have turned into a real fortress. Brendan Rodgers' side have lost only one of their last nine league games there. That was a defeat against rivals Cardiff, which is their only home loss of the season against a team currently in the top half of the table.

MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
•Swansea have won 18 and Norwich 14 of the 39 league matches between these clubs.
•A win for Norwich would complete their first league 'double' over the Swans for 49 years.
Swansea
•Swansea have won four, drawn one and lost four of their nine matches against current top-six sides.
•They have conceded a mere nine league goals at home all season - fewer than any other Championship team.
•The Swans have kept clean sheets in 17 games this term, and have won 15 of those matches.
Norwich
•Norwich are the sole Championship team to have lost only once in 2011.
•The Canaries have won three, drawn five and lost one of their nine matches against current top-half teams.
•They have had 517 shots on goal this season and have scored 68 times. Only Leeds have scored more.
•A win would complete Norwich's sixth league 'double' of the campaign. So far they have beaten Leicester, Bristol City, Barnsley, Sheffield United and Scunthorpe both home and away.
•Simeon Jackson and Leon Barnett are in line for their 150th league appearances.

Game also live on sky

norwich will win if can stop sinclair and dyer and joe allen from playing.

This should be a game of plenty of goals - two sides I think would be great in PL!

ncfc_Tooze wrote:Game also live on sky

Do you think Pacheco will start?

Would like to see how he's progressing

i agree nando. we will probs stick with the diamond. which gives us an extra man defending and one in attack. should be a good game though which should be very attacking. we did very well in a very tough game at home im expecting this one to be tough but to be the one to kick off a good run until the end. i would say the two best teams in the league next to qpr

i would say pacheco will start as was very impressive last week and is probarly the first player to get a standing ovation in there first game for a long time. he set 2 of the 3 of holt goals before being replaced fo jackson who scored 3 more