An entertaining first half, and a hard-working second saw Norwich City and West Ham United take a share of the spoils, playing out a 0-0 draw in the early kickoff of the English Premier League at Carrow Road.
Norwich will feel a little unlucky not to have taken full points, after playing better in the second period, but on the balance of it all, both sides will be pretty satisfied not to have thrown away all three points. West Ham now have seven points from four games, while Norwich earned their third draw in four, for their third point of the season.
The first 45 minutes saw some enterprising soccer from both teams, with Norwich and West Ham carving out chances, which could have seen either side go into the break with the lead.
Norwich got the ball rolling, when Andrew Surman shot just wide after a nice move from the home side. Almost immediately on the other side, Ricardo Vaz Te came close, showing some trickery out on the right, before striking a shot at goalkeeper John Ruddy. The Norwich keeper could only palm the shot to Carlton Cole, who saw his goalward bound header cleared off the line. The ensuing rebound fell to Matt Taylor, but the midfielder shot just wide of the post.
Norwich were troubling the West Ham defense, with the away side lucky to get a couple of 50-50 offside calls going their way, holding a dangerously high line, and making themselves open to runs from the speedy Simeon Jackson. Robert Snodgrass, who had a good game for his side, then came close. A poor freekick from the midfielder rebounded kindly off the wall to him, and the former Leeds United player waltzed his way into the box, and went down under Kevin Nolan's challenge. Referee Chris Foy, who hardly made any mistakes, though, correctly waved play on.
Kevin Nolan tested Ruddy at the other end; the goalkeeper keeping out Nolan's shot after some good work, initially from fullback Joey O'Brien.
Snodgrass then created another chance, after initially robbing O'Brien; he forced a corner off Collins, before the resulting corner saw the ball ping-pong inside the box, with Jaskelainen and his defenders doing well to keep the ball out.
In the second half, Norwich were the much better side, Jackson coming closest, with a fierce 25-yard strike, forcing Jaskelainen to make a brilliant one-handed save. A couple more chances went begging for Norwich, as the game slowly petered out, as the pace of the game slowed down.
Norwich were still looking the more dangerous side, with substitute Harry Kane, who is on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, coming close late on a couple of times. First the young striker saw his shot easily saved by Jaskelainen, after nicely cutting onto his right foot to create space. Then off a quick counter-attack, the forward only managed to strike a weak shot straight at Jaskelainen, as both sides settled for a point.
