Norwich C 1 Stoke City 1:MATCHING STOKE in every way possible very nearly did the trick for Norwich.

Replicating their opponents’ tactics, physicality and favoured manner of scoring goals resulted in the Canaries leading until deep into added time, before finally succumbing, as so many teams have before them, to the uncomplicated but always dangerous aerial threat offered by Kenwyne Jones.

That Norwich had been harshly reduced to 10 men with 25 minutes remaining added to the sense of injustice around Carrow Road. Ritchie De Laet had put Norwich in the lead with a header direct from Bradley Johnson’s free-kick in a first half that was low on quality and, even when the referee, Neil Swarbrick, sent off Leon Barnett for allegedly bringing down Jon Walters, the Norwich goalkeeper, John Ruddy, saved the penalty.

“I thought we were brilliant, we looked really good against a really good side,” said Norwich’s manager, Paul Lambert.

“The actual contact (between Barnett and Walters) was at least three yards outside the box. It should probably have been a free-kick but we took a double hit with the penalty and sending-off. With 11 on the pitch I think we’d have seen it through.”

Eyebrows were raised when Lambert made six changes to the side that gained a draw at Wigan in their opening fixture, not least because only two were down to injury. The most notable omission was that of Wes Hoolahan, regularly the Canaries’ most creative player, as Lambert switched from a midfield diamond to a flat four.

The loss of Jermaine Pennant to a calf injury shortly after the half-hour reduced Stoke’s attacking options but the manner in which they went behind eight minutes before half-time must have infuriated their manager, Tony Pulis, for its simplicity. A free-kick on the Norwich right was curled into the Stoke penalty area by Johnson and De Laet got ahead of his marker Walters to glance a header beyond the Stoke goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic.

The Belgian De Laet, on loan from Manchester United, came into English football when Stoke signed him in 2007. What appeared to have been Stoke’s best opportunity to equalise came shortly after the hour with the penalty award. Ruddy’s save corrected one of the injustices but Norwich still had to survive the remainder of the game with 10 men.

But with three minutes of added time played, Jones, who had already turned one close-range shot high over the bar, got up on the six-yard line to head Glenn Whelan’s cross past Ruddy.