Healy's strike edges Norwich towards top six

Any hopes Wimbledon had of making the First Division play-offs ended with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Norwich City last night as just 10 travelling Dons supporters watched Stuart Murdoch's side succumb at Carrow Road.

Norwich secured their 11th league victory at Carrow Road of the season to move to within five points of sixth-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers and keep promotion hopes alive, thanks to the on-loan David Healy's 40th-minute strike.

But the Wimbledon manager Stuart Murdoch admitted afterwards that a second defeat in four days had put an end to any hopes of his side making the play-offs, and added that his youngsters must learn from the lessons of the defeat in East Anglia.

"I would think that is it," Murdoch admitted of the club's play-off hopes. "We've lost two games now and we must learn some lessons. We didn't match Norwich in the first half but, all credit to them, they came out at us."

Norwich were finally rewarded for their endeavours five minutes from the break, when Zema Abbey rose to meet a long-kick from the goalkeeper Robert Green, and Healy, who capitalised on Moritz Volz's failure to clear, tucked a neat shot into the bottom corner of Kelvin Davis's net.

Earlier Abbey had shot over with a looping volley after just two minutes, the captain and central defender Malky Mackay replicated the effort two minutes later and then Mark Rivers was inches away from being on the end of Adam Drury's left-wing cross.

The effervescent Paul McVeigh, on the Norwich left, brought the best out of Davis after 18 minutes when he cut inside Volz, after a delightful cross-field ball by Healy, and sent his shot curling towards the top corner, only for the visiting goalkeeper to spectacularly push the ball wide. Shortly before the half-hour mark the home side went close once more when the defender Steen Nedergaard's attempted cross from the right was deflected off the substitute Rob Gier and on to the outside of Davis's upright.

Wimbledon, however, had the chance to restore parity on the stroke of half-time when Volz raced the length of the field, played a one-two with David Connolly and laid off for Neil Shipperley, only for the gangling striker to fire tamely at Green.

The home side thought they had doubled their lead after 64 minutes when Abbey slotted into an empty net after McVeigh's initial shot had come back of the post, but the striker was adjudged to have been in an offside position.

Norwich were thankful to their goalkeeper Green three minutes later when he superbly blocked Adam Nowland's shot from close-range after the ball had found its way to the Wimbledon forward, following two block tackles by Mackay and Drury. But Green, making his 100th appearance for the club, was almost the villain as he failed to punch a long throw-in in injury time. The keeper had the defender Darren Kenton to thank for a goal-line clearance from Connolly.

Norwich City (4-4-2): Green; Nedergaard, Drury, Mackay, Kenton; Russell, Holt, McVeigh, Rivers; Abbey (Roberts, 90), Healy (Nielsen, 88). Substitutes not used: Crichton (gk), Easton, Bromby.

Wimbledon (4-4-2): Davis; Hawkins, Volz, Chorley Darlington (Gier, 14); Reo-Coker, Nowland, Morgan (Holloway, 65), Tapp (Agyemang, 82); Shipperley, Connolly. Substitutes not used: Gore (gk), Gray.

Referee: M Fletcher (Worcestershire).

* Bradford City enhanced their First Division survival prospects by beating Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor. Claus Jorgensen and Andy Gray were the scorers for the Bantams.