DAVID CUFFLEY City's lack of home security has cost them any chance of a promotion challenge this season, skipper Adam Drury had admitted.

DAVID CUFFLEY

City's lack of home security has cost them any chance of a promotion challenge this season, skipper Adam Drury admitted last night.

Drury lost a front tooth in yesterday's 2-1 defeat by high-flying West Bromwich Albion but was hurt more by another failure for the Canaries at Carrow Road in front of a bumper Easter Monday crowd.

A seventh home defeat – and yet another decisive goal conceded in stoppage time – left the battered full-back with more than a trip to the dentist to worry about.

While City's indifferent away record is often cited as their Achilles heel, the fact that they have won just 10 of their 21 Championship home games this season has arguably been more damaging.

“In this division it's all about your home form,” said Drury, who won the official sponsors' man of the match award. “Winning your home games and picking up points away, that's the difference in this league.

“We've got to get ready for that next season and get back to what we were before and make Carrow Road a fortress. If we win our home games and put in performances away we will pick up results. We're winning one and losing one and the fans must feel the same as the players. You go from a high to a low, and it gets you down. It really does.”

Drury, who left Hull with a black eye after Friday's 2-1 win, lost his tooth yesterday when he was caught by the arm of Albion's Zoltan Gera early in the second half – but found it quickly. “It's a little bit sore,” said Drury. “I went up for the header and I knew straight away he'd caught me in the face. I went down and I looked in my hand and saw my tooth. I started to talk and had a little bit of a whistle, but it's not great.”