City boss Paul Lambert believes his side are on the verge of turning draws into wins as they prepare to face Leyton Orient at Carrow Road tomorrow night.
While they have impressed in their last two outings by defying the odds to claim a point, the Canaries have now gone four games without a league win.
They are already 15 points behind Leeds and five points shy of the play-off pack. And while it’s still early days, the Scot will feel it’s time to get a run going.
“If we keep playing the way we are then we will start winning, that’s the normal occurrence,” he told the press this morning.
“Before the sending off on Saturday, there was only one team in the game. It was as well as we’ve played since I’ve been here and if we carry on like that we won’t be too far away.
“But Leyton Orient will be a hard game. They’ll be well organised and it will be a tough, tough game. But we’re at home; the onus is on us to make the running.
“Like any team coming to Norwich, they will raise their game. But if we play the way we have been, we’ll be fine.”
Refereeing decisions have certainly been a major talking point in recent weeks and the Canary chief admitted that you sometimes need the rub of the green to swing matches your way.
Fraser Forster’s dismissal for supposedly bringing down Curtis Weston at the weekend remains debatable.
And with Grant Holt being denied a penalty at the other end, lady luck isn’t exactly smiling on City at the moment.
“You need a little of luck in the game, you need things to bounce your way and we could have had a penalty ourselves at the death, which we never got. So yes you do need a bit of luck but I can’t fault the lads for their effort.”
One thing they won’t be doing however is attempting to get the on-loan Forster’s suspension overturned.
They are already planning for life without him against Geraint Williams’ O’s…
“It’s very unlikely we’ll appeal. There was only one camera at the game and the referee was adamant it was a sending off when I spoke to him afterwards so it’s unlikely we’d get it rescinded.
“It’s not clear enough. Even though Fraser said he never touched him, the powers that be tend to side with the referees.”
So do we now assume that young understudy Declan Rudd will make his full debut?
“He did well and he’s only young so his youthful exuberance took him through the game,” continued the City chief. “But his performance was really pleasing.
“He’ll be in the squad but I’ll have to decide what to do. We’ve only got two goalkeepers so Michael [Theoklitos] will come back into the squad.
“He’s slowly but surely turning it around in the reserve games and we must remember that not all seven goals against Colchester were his fault – that would be unfair criticism.”
In other injury news, the hamstring complaint that forced Jon Otsemobor off in Kent on Saturday looks set to keep him on the sidelines.
Korey Smith would be the safe bet to replace him, with Stephen Hughes coming back into the centre of midfield.
But Lambert admitted that the Liverpudlian’s absence could hit the Canaries hard, as much in a numbers sense as anything else.
“Jon’s a major doubt. Fraser obviously misses the game because of his red card but apart from that, everybody is OK.
“It leaves us with a little bit of a hole in Jon’s position. As I’ve said before, people think we’ve got a big squad but we haven’t, it’s only young kids beneath him.”
Tom Haylett
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