Southampton let early lead slip to disappointing defeat at Norwich

Red-hot Che Adams continued a blinding week with Scotland to open inside 180 seconds but Saints were pegged back minutes later by Teemu Pukki, before Grant Hanley’s late header won all three points.

Smith was making a Premier League first, meeting the same team in consecutive matchdays in charge of a different club following his Aston Villa sacking.

Hasenhuttl named one change to his side that defeated Villa 1-0, with Ibrahima Diallo replacing, Stuart Armstrong who was absent from the matchday squad, on the right ‘10’.

Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo had picked up knocks since Hasenhuttl gave an injury-list all-clear – with the exception of Jack Stephens – 48 hours earlier, while Nathan Redmond missed the game due to the birth of his first child on Friday evening.

That’s a lot of disruption itself, but the last time Saints visited Carrow Road was the first Premier League game of the lockdown era – Saints were victorious 3-0 on that unusual Friday evening.

And it immediately looked like a game that had seen preparation disrupted – Saints charged forward inside three minutes for Adam Armstrong, in a battle with Mathias Normann, to knock on to Che Adams.

The hopeful knock somehow evaded two hapless Norwich defenders for Adams to finish low off the far post from inside the area, his fifth goal in six games in all competitions for club and country.

But the lead was undone minutes by eight minute when Milot Rashica and Max Aarons combined to beat Kyle Walker-Peters down Saints’ left, before the latter’s cross was headed beyond Alex McCarthy at his near-post by Pukki.

The Diallo experiment looked a failed one at first, the Frenchman looked lost and confused. But towards the end of a dominant but not inventive enough first-half he was Saints’ brightest spark.

The 22-year-old was appealing for a penalty after a shove from Todd Cantwell inside the area, but nothing was awarded – and probably fairly so – before his inventive bit of skill dubbed a ‘Zidane turn’ took three defenders out the game and afforded Moi Elyounoussi a good chance.

His best moment then came right before the interval, snatching the ball back on the halfway line and sending Adams through on goal, but Tim Krul denied the Scot a second of the day with a superb diving save low to his right.

Armando Broja and Theo Walcott were both introduced relatively early in the second period, in place of Elyounoussi and Adams, as Norwich flipped the game – from Saints’ domination it was now the home side on top.

Tino Livramento was forced into a top tackle to deny the breaking Norwich a certain goalscoring opportunity, after Pukki had raced to the edge of McCarthy’s area.

The Finnish forward nearly gave Norwich the lead with under 15 minutes to play but for a really quick and strong McCarthy arm at his near-post, after Hasenhuttl had switched to a five-back with Lyanco’s introduction.

They then took the lead through a Hanley header at the back-post, the marking for the corner not sufficient to stop the Scottish international, much to the disgust but likely not surprise of the travelling support.

Saints had a succession of three corners as they looked to get back into it late but failed to do so, while Armstrong was among those who sent pop-shots goalwards.

But as four minutes of additional time remaining slipped into none with a Walcott missed header from close range, Smith was able to celebrate victory in his first game as Canaries boss.

Saints: McCarthy; Livramento, Bednarek, Salisu, Walker-Peters; Romeu (Lyanco, 72) Diallo, Ward-Prowse, Elyounoussi (Broja, 56); A Armstrong, Adams (Walcott, 61)

Unused subs: Perraud, Valery, Tella, Smallbone, Long, Forster (g/k)

Booked: Bednarek, Walker-Peters

Norwich: Krul; Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Williams; Normann, Gilmour (Rupp, 85), McClean; Rashica (Tzolis, 90), Cantwell (Sargent, 46), Pukki

Unused subs: Omobamidele, Giannoulis, Lees-Melou, Placheta, Idah, Gunn (g/k)

Booked: Williams