A retrospective charge is expected for Coventry’s Brandon Thomas-Asante after elbowing Norwich’s Pelle Mattsson in Monday night’s game.
During the first half, with the scoreline at 0-0, Thomas-Asante went unpunished by the referee and assistants.
Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett said it was violent conduct, that Thomas-Asante should have been sent off, and says the Football Association’s disciplinary authorities would likely retrospectively charge the player for the elbow.
Tatsuhiro Sakamoto also went unpunished after he caught Kellen Fisher in the face, with Clement being booked for his protests.
Norwich went on to defeat league leaders Coventry 2-1, with second-half goals from Anis Ben Slimane and Ali Ahmed overturning Romain Esse’s opener for the Sky Blues.
The result will delight the fans of Middlesbrough and Ipswich, but also leaves Blackburn, Portsmouth, West Brom and Charlton supporters dismayed.
Coventry sit top with 58 points from 29 games played, 3 points above 2nd place Middlesbrough, and 8 clear of Ipswich and Hull who are both on 50 points and have a game in hand. Norwich meanwhile are 18th with 33 points from 29 games played, 4 points above the drop zone.
I wonder if we’re playing 🆚 Frank Lampard’s Coventry… 🙃
Absolute thuggery – no arguments. #NCFC 📲 @Anty2609
— Chris Reeve (@ChrisReevo) January 26, 2026
Honestly expected better from a proper club like Coventry.
Top of the league, so much quality throughout their team.
Tonight, they turned to GBH – not once, but *twice* 🤷🏻♂️
Genuinely embarrassing. #NCFC
— Chris Reeve (@ChrisReevo) January 26, 2026
On Brandon Thomas-Asante’s elbow incident, Keith Hackett said to Football Insider: “This is an act of Violent Conduct, the player using his arm/elbow against his opponent.
“It is evident that the referee and his colleagues have missed this incident.
“I therefore expect the disciplinary authorities to charge this player for this violent off-the-ball incident.
“The procedure that will apply is that the match officials will be asked if they witnessed the incident.
“They will send a video clip to the referee asking what action he would have taken if he had seen the clash.”
Norwich head coach Philippe Clement said, per Pink Un: “I’ve seen two actions after the game that, for me, are clear red cards. The second half Kellen Fisher got also a blow in his face.
“So I think it’s clear, if you will look back the game, it will be clear for everybody. So it’s a bad, bad challenge, an arm in the face. But it’s not my job to talk about those things.
“It’s a positive thing that the team won, although we didn’t have the circumstances with us and I don’t want to put too much focus on that, because then the players don’t get the reward that they should get and the attention that they should get, because they did a really great game, and I’m really proud of them.”
Norwich match-winner Ali Ahmed, told Sky Sports: “It’s fun. I joined a team that was already improving, a team that should be competing in the top six, it’s a talented group of guys.
“I think we started on the front foot, we had chances but weren’t clinical enough.
“It says a lot we came back with the belief and resilience and win 2-1 against a side top of the league.”
Clement told Sky Sports:
“I’m really happy with how the team is responding and how hard they’ve worked and they’re beginning to get the reward for all their hard work.
“I have a tremendous staff here and we’ve been really busy to get a better structures, get better organisations and make them stronger as well.
“We have by far the youngest squad in the Championship and it’s great to see the evolution of all these young lads.
“It’s about mindset to create a winning culture and we want to make it clear in everything we do.”
On Josh Sargent’s continued absence:
“The situation hasn’t changed. He knows he has the key to come back in the group. I’ve been clear about that.
“As a club, there’s no intention to sell him now because we believe in his qualities and he’s a really good player.
“As for the rest of the transfer window, we’ll still working on bringing someone in.”
Clement told BBC Radio Norfolk:
“I want more. I hope this creates, for everybody in the building, more hunger and more belief.
“I was a bit disappointed at half time, and told them, because I saw a few players at 1-0 going a little bit down – less available on the ball, less aggressive playing forwards.
“Their reaction was there after those five minutes and that’s something we have to keep. We did a lot of things well in the first half and could have scored but missed the last pass or the decisive run but we were really close.
“I have the ambition to go to the Premier League with this club and the owners and sporting director have that.
“When I came in and asked the players some questions they all put in the questionnaire that they want to go to the Premier League so we’re going to work hard for that.”
On new signing Paris Maghoma: “He didn’t play much football this season so it’s a different story to Harry [Amass] or even Ali [Ahmed] but he can give us extra midfield options and creativity around the box. I know him from his time in Bolton.”
Coventry boss Frank Lampard told Sky Sports: “We gifted them their goals in my opinion. We could have scored more ourselves but the clinical areas at both ends of the pitch we didn’t get right.
“We didn’t start the second half well and it gave them momentum.
“Liam Kitching has been fantastic for us this season, I’m not going to hold it against him. It’s football, you can make those sorts of mistakes. We’ll stick together.
“I was under no illusions when we were more points clear that it’s a difficult league and there are a lot of tough games to come, for us and others. We’ll just focus on ourselves.
“The players know they fell below their standards, we made mistakes we don’t normally make. We have to correct them.
“We’re not given opportunities, you have to take them, tonight we didn’t.”
Lampard also said he had not seen Brandon Thomas-Asante’s clash with Pelle Mattsson at the time or in a replay after the game and he “doesn’t know” what will happen retrospectively.
Lampard told BBC Radio CWR:
“We gifted them their goals. If you do that in the Championship you lose games. If you defend sloppily and make mistakes, teams score against you.
“We created enough chances to score more goals but didn’t. Defensive errors are a problem, something we’ve been good at this season.
“It was a great finish, good goal, and we went in at half time 1-0, so that’s positive, but we came out [in the second half] and gave them some momentum.
“Some games aren’t easy to control in the Championship. We had more possession than them, and created enough chances, but games are always won in both boxes.
“It’s not easy to come here on a Monday night against a team in good form and try to control every aspect of the game.”
Here’s how fans reacted with retrospective charge expected for Brandon Thomas-Asante after elbowing Pelle Mattsson…
@spaulinnit: If it’s not seen on field, and the FA come to the conclusion that it’s violent conduct – he’s not challenging for the ball, so can’t see it being anything else – he will be sanctioned and get a 3 match ban.
@TonyMunky: Genuinely the dirtiest bunch of fuckers I’ve seen at Carrow Road in a long time, that win was beautiful 👌❤️
@naustin1975: Can we have the same @FA official that retrospectively banned @kennymclean66 pls 👏🏻👏🏻 #ncfc
@1979ballboy: Got to be a ban after reviewing like McLean
@DanieIEmery: Didn’t see what Sakamoto did in real time. That’s absolutely crazy!? How on earth has that not been spotted?
@MakamaFC: They showed no class at all tonight Chris. Lampard’s post match reaction on Sky was even more embarrassing.
@Harv_Forbes: Thing is this is RIGHT IN FRONT of the lino. I understand things get lost but where is the lino looking they are literally there to look at the offside line he would have had a perfect view IMO. #ncfc
@RKH4658: How on earth do @Coventry_City still have 10 men on the pitch against @NorwichCityFC One of the most blatant red cards ul ever see! #ncfc
@VickieO_VTO: Is bad but also very out of character for Saka. Not clear exactly what the Norwich player did from that angle but not unusual for Saka to be targeted week in week out & so don’t know if this was just snapping at final straw. One of reasons refs have to have better control.
@fleckybhoy: That happened right in front of us and the Linesman, how the fuck he didn’t see it was ridiculous #ncfc
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