Dean Smith had his say on some of the key issues ahead of Norwich City's Championship home game against Blackburn.

The Canaries' boss held his pre-match press call at Colney on Friday morning.

This is what Smith had to say on the following.

SQUAD FITNESS 

Probably as good as we've been. I think there's only Sam Byram (hamstring), Lunghi (Jacob Sorensen, foot) and Jonny Rowe (ankle) out. Everybody else trained. Thursday was the first day for AJ (Aaron Ramsey), Tony Springett, Nacho (Marcelino Nunez) to train, so it might be too early to put them in on Saturday but it's great to have everybody back now training.

(Todd Cantwell fitness after being left out at Swansea?) No, okay. He’s trained all week this week so he is fine. 

SWANSEA footnote 

Defensively what we wanted. We made Swansea play where we wanted them to play. They've had one chance from a (Kyle) Naughton header at the far post where Sam (McCallum) got caught under the ball.

Other than that, they were throwing balls into our box and you know, they probably could have gone another hour and not scored against us. I was really pleased with what we did defensively. First half we created some really good opportunities.

Second half, as I said, after the game, we needed to be more progressive with the ball and we wasn't until probably the subs came on. (Liam) Gibbs gave us a give bit more thrust when he came on. But a well deserved win.

(Why did the work with the ball drop off in that second half?) Speaking to the players after doing the review, they all said they felt really comfortable. You know, they didn't feel that Swansea were going to hurt them but we just didn't keep the ball well enough.

It broke down too often in the middle of the pitch and we never progressed it as well as we could do. The lads know they can do that aspect much better. 

ROVERS challenge

(not a single draw in 22 league games) Very unusual at this stage of a season. It is strange to go that long into a season and not draw a game. A dangerous team to play against.

You might want to label them ‘the entertainers’ because they have won more games than us and lost more games than us. But a dangerous team when you look at (Ben) Brereton, (Bradley) Dack is back fit and (Sam) Gallagher.

(Do you read too much into a heavy home defeat to Preston last time out?) It was a derby for them and they lost another derby at Burnley, I think that was 3-0. The manager seems to like trying to match up other teams in terms of his shape.

So if a team is playing a three, then they'll play a three or for playing a four, they'll play a four. It'll be interesting to see what they can do. 

BRERETON threat

A really good finisher. I remember watching him early on at (Nottingham) Forest. You know, he's gone on and he's starting to get the numbers that everybody expected him to get. But it's not just about him, because you still have to get to get the ball to him. But he is a good finisher. 

JON DAHL TOMASSSON impact 

He's very experienced. I know him from his time as the Danish assistant coach. When I was at Brentford, we had a few Danish internationals, and he would pop into the training ground every now and again.

He was very successful with Denmark as well. He has first taste of full time management (in the UK) and they're the third in the league. So they're doing something right, that's for sure.