A goalless draw is hardly a surprise result between two clubs who have seen less of the ball in the opposition third and six-yard box than any other side in the Premier League.
But it is an opportunity missed as Newcastle United find themselves only seven points away from the drop zone, albeit after propelling into the top half of the table, whilst Norwich City are now the same number of points away from safety.
Headed chances at both ends
Despite Newcastle scoring more set-piece goals than any other side this season, and Norwich conceding almost as many, it was the Canaries who almost broke the deadlock on five minutes from such a position. Sam Byram, who has never scored in the Premier League, rose highest to meet Ondrej Duda's whipped corner, only to be kept out by the palms of Martin Dubravka.
Duda was looking sharp and his high cross was only half cleared by DeAndre Yedlin before Teemu Pukki let rip with a thunderbolt half-volley, stretching Dubravka who tipped over.
But Yedlin, who was keeping out loanee Valentino Lazaro at right wing-back, soon skipped away from Byram with a neat stepover before picking out Joelinton with a deep cross. The record signing headed across goal only for Tim Krul to palm the effort away, Miguel Almiron nodding wide the rebound when he should have scored.
As the half filtered to a close, Todd Cantwell dropped between the lines to pick up the ball and spin into space before feeding Duda, the Slovakian seeing his effort deflected and dipping onto the roof of the net.
Pukki misses golden opportunity
As Newcastle made early changes in the second half to try and turn the tide, including the introduction of Lazaro, Duda's right foot was still proving to be a threat, picking out Byram again with a swinging corner but his header into the ground drifted over.
Speedster Allan Saint-Maximin had struggled to make an impact but after twisting and turning on the edge of the box, his cross was almost diverted into his own goal by Grant Hanley, Krul keeping the ball out of his bottom corner with a diving stop.
As Saint-Maximin opened up, floating a cross-shot wide of goal, so did the Newcastle defence. Jamaal Lascelles lost the ball to Pukki who combined with Duda to run through on goal. But, as he did against Bournemouth a fortnight ago, Pukki failed to open his body up enough when bearing down on goal. Dubravka's stop was eventually scrambled by the Newcastle defence to Duda who then struck into the side-netting when he also should have scored.
After Danny Rose came on for his debut, the final real opportunity of the contest fell to Federico Fernandez but his looping header from a Matt Ritchie corner was comfortably tipped over.
Key takeaway
Norwich climb high to compete
Not only are Norwich in the bottom three of the league table but they are also in a similar position for number of aerial duals won - Newcastle are in a European position in that particular statistic.
Yet Norwich almost doubled their average number of aerial duels won, climbing higher than their opponents with 24 headers completed, compared to Newcastle's 22. The cultured right-foot of Ondrej Duda certainly aided this statistic.
Remarkably, a third of Norwich's successful battles were won by 5 foot 9 Sam Byram who made eight headers, second only to Joelinton, going close to break the deadlock with two of those headers.
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