Norwich City go to Hull City on the Championship final day with their play-off hopes already gone and Philippe Clement demanding one last clean finish to the season. The Canaries’ draw with Swansea ended any mathematical route into the top six, but Friday’s trip still carries a stake for the final Championship play-off place.
Clement said Norwich want to go for the three points every time and warned that any player who looks as if he is already on the beach will not be around for pre-season. He also said he wishes the club were still in the play-off picture, because that is where the tension belongs, but added that Norwich must create their own pressure and show they are a team of winners.
The game matters beyond Norwich’s own position because Hull City, Wrexham or Derby could still take the final top-six spot. Clement described the week’s work as good and said the training has had a strong dynamic, with Hull facing a match he expects to feel, in his words, like a knife is on their throat to succeed. Norwich, he added, will also be driven on by another full away end in Hull.
There is recent history to frame the meeting. Norwich beat Hull 2-0 at Carrow Road earlier in the season, a match that included the senior debut of Errol Mundle-Smith. Now the clubs meet again with the table tightened by the final-day stakes and Norwich trying to finish on a note that matches Clement’s demand for standards rather than drift.
That task comes with several absences. Ben Chrisene has undergone shoulder surgery, and Clement said on Friday at Colney that everything went well and the defender will be back over the summer. Lucien Mahovo has been training fully for four or five days, but Clement said the staff do not want to take any risk with him and he will not be selected. Oscar Schwartau remains in light training after an injury curtailed his season, and Kenny McLean is out with a back complaint.
The tension around Hull’s promotion chase gives the fixture a sharper edge than Norwich’s own league position would suggest. For Clement, the test is whether his side can carry the last-day atmosphere into a performance that matches the standard he is asking for. For Norwich, the response in Hull will say more about the dressing room than the table now does.
