If there were any positives whatsoever from Monday night's defeat in West London ? the match that proved one too many for the now-departed Peter Grant ? it must be the performance of City keeper David Marshall.
In what has been a desperate start to the campaign, which sees the Canaries firmly entrenched in the bottom three, there was been one constant ? the form of the Scotland international. The long and painstaking chase to secure Marshall's services in the summer may just turn out to be the best bit of business the Norfolk club have done in recent years.
At ?1 million, he didn't come cheap, but after the departure of Robert Green, City have tried, and failed, to fill the England keeper's gloves on many occasions. Tony Warner, Paul Gallacher, Lee Camp and Jamie Ashdown have not made the grade for one reason or another and Grant was understandably delighted with his summer capture.
The Scot has not failed to disappoint, even if the rest of the team have.
If it wasn't for his heroics in the second half on Monday night, City could have been on the end of an embarrassing scoreline and for all their troubles this season, the Canary net has only been breached 11 times ? amazingly, one less than league leaders Watford.
The former Celtic stopper can take much of the credit for that, but the 1-0 defeat at QPR was just the latest in a string of poor results and poor performances and Marshall admitted the dressing room was 'like a morgue' after the final whistle.
“It was a disappointing result ? again,” said the dejected 21-year old. “In the first half we did ok without doing too well and in the second half we just dropped off which has happened a lot this season.
“Whilst you can always get a goal from somewhere ? a deflection, a corner, a silly mistake or even a penalty ? we didn't really look like threatening and we didn't create too many chances to be fair.”
The half-time departure of Dion Dublin through injury would not have helped matters but if Norwich are to drag themselves out of the sorry mess they find themselves in, they must learn to stop pointing the finger, to stop finding excuses.
Man for man, the Canaries have a squad capable of making a challenge, not winning the division, but making a challenge, and as influential as Dublin is they should not have capitulated as they did in the second half.
“It was a big loss to lose Dion at half-time but we should still be handling things better, everybody in the team to be honest,” added Marshall. “Dion's a great player and he does a lot of talking and organising with his experience on the pitch but we should still be performing better than we did.”
As for the winning penalty, did Marshall have any complaints?
“To be honest, I think the one just before where Shacks brought the boy down was probably a penalty as well so we've got no complaints about the decision.”
All eyes will turn now to whether the Canaries can lift themselves for what will be a very important game a week on Saturday against Bristol City at Carrow Road.
They don't just have a league position to concern them, they have the fact that their recent showings were partly to blame for the departure of the manager. These next few weeks will be pivotal in City's season and some semblance of team spirit must return if they are to give themselves a fighting chance ? but it won't be easy.
“Obviously everybody is down, the morale is low,” said Marshall. “We don't want to be where we are. I can't speak for the other boys but my confidence is not low in terms with the way I'm playing. I still want to get out there on the pitch and play well
“But we are not happy with what is happening. That's six games without a goal now but we just need to keep working hard and hopefully something will turn for us. We are still in the bottom three so it is very disappointing. The boys here have been brought in by the manager and we're not doing it at the moment. We should be much higher in the league but the table doesn't lie.”
Tom Haylett
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