West Bromwich Albion have a swift chance of revenge over the Canaries following Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat – but manager Roy Hodgson would rather have had three Premier League points in the bag than an FA Cup win in a fortnight’s time.

City go to The Hawthorns on January 28 for a fourth round tie, with a place in the last 16 the reward for the winners.

But Hodgson admitted: “I think all coaches who are in the same situation that I am at West Brom or Paul Lambert is with Norwich, we prize league points, we prize staying in the league.

“I suppose, much as we would all like to win the FA Cup and will do our best to win the FA Cup, I think all of us will say at the end it’s the league points which are the most important.

“So I guess in one of those ludicrously hypothetical situations, if I could have exchanged three points here for a defeat in the FA Cup, I might have taken it.”

Albion have lost seven of their 11 league fixtures on their own ground and Hodgson cannot recall a poorer home run as a manager.

“I don’t think I can remember seven home defeats. It’s a very negative statistic,” he said.

“We’ve got to get back to winning ways here at The Hawthorns because it must be very frustrating for the fans to come and see us losing at home so regularly.

“All the defeats are painful – especially the recent ones here. Wigan was a very similar situation where we lost the game on two counter-attacks after having such a lot of chances and possession, and it happened again today.”

Hodgson said Albion had been “mugged” by two City goals scored on the break. He said: “I didn’t think we played well in the first half. It was just a little spell before half-time when we started to play better and play the type of football we’re capable of playing. Amazingly enough, it was in that spell where they scored their goal.

“So we were 1-0 down at half-time. You have to try to rally the troops. I thought in the second half we showed a lot more energy and endeavour and when we equalised I thought it was just reward for the effort that we made.

“But we got caught on a similar counter-attack and then Norwich were able to hang on for a victory which, for their organisation and determination, I’m sure their manager feels they deserved, but for us it feels a bit harsh. You judge performances that much more harshly when you lose than when you win.”