Chris Lakey Paul Lambert will walk into his office at Norwich City's Colney training centre this morning and attempt to restore a confidence he helped shatter. City's new manager masterminded the demoralising 7-1 home defeat by Colchester - but just 11 days later and with the Us top of League One, he handed in his resignation and headed to Norfolk to begin the task of dragging City out of the doldrums.

Chris Lakey

Paul Lambert will walk into his office at Norwich City's Colney training centre this morning and attempt to restore a confidence he helped shatter.

City's new manager masterminded the demoralising 7-1 home defeat by Colchester - but just 11 days later and with the Us top of League One, he handed in his resignation and headed to Norfolk to begin the task of dragging City out of the doldrums.

Lambert's appointment on a rolling contract was announced yesterday morning - just four days after Bryan Gunn was sacked - and while he and chief executive David McNally insist that a decision has yet to be made on the make-up of his backroom team, Colchester say City have also taken his assistant, former Canary Ian Culverhouse, and football operations manager Gary Karsa.

Negotiations over compensation are on-going.

Lambert was at Griffin Park to see City against Brentford last night, but the job begins in earnest today.

"When a new manager walks into a new club everybody sits up and takes stock and you get the ones that will go with it and you get ones that might just buckle under it," he said.

"But you need the big ones to perform.

"There's no doubt we have got big players here, it's just that we have to get them into the other way of thinking and hopefully they will go with it. It is up to us to give the lads a bit more confidence than they have at the minute and drive the club on.

"My main objective is to get the group of lads here at the minute up and running. That will give everybody a chance to get going.

"They are good players there's no doubt. They might be a little bit lacking in confidence at the minute. My job is to get them going.

"The main task is to win. That creates a stability. If we can get his place going then this place will be rocking that's for sure."

Lambert has seen his new playing staff at first hand, but says everyone starts with a clean slate, despite the black mark of the opening day.

"I am not worried one bit," he said.

"When you get beaten heavily, I have had it before myself, you tend to bounce back really quickly and to be fair to the lads at Norwich, they went to Yeovil and got a really good result down there and got a point at Exeter.

"I don't have a problem. The lads have all got a chance to prove themselves and what they can do.

"I thought at the time the result might have hurt a lot of people in this neck of the woods but never did I think I was going to come here.

"I just thought I was manager at Colchester.

"When you look at the stadium and the fan base it has got everything in place and I want to be part of it and try and drive it on. It will be huge - the expectancy level is the first one you are going to have to get over and players are going to have to realise when you are at a club like this you have to win more game than not.

"Colchester is brilliant, don't get me wrong in any way shape or form.

"The people there are terrific to work with, but when an opportunity comes like this, with the fan base - it's not that long ago that this football club was in the Premiership, that's how big it's been.

"I know the fan base first hand from a fortnight ago and it is something I want to do well at and be a part of to try and take it forward."

Lambert has until the end of the month to bring in new players but looks set to stick with what he has got for the time being.

"I think there has been a lot of new lads brought in in the summer," he said.

"There is only a week or so before the window closes so I'm going to give everybody a chance."

The 40-year-old was chief executive David McNally's number one target.

He said: "He was the man because we quite frankly looked at the criteria that we agreed as a board, the personal qualities that we thought were important alongside ability and experience and clearly he came to the top of the pile in terms of who we wanted to go after.

"As a reminder, we wanted somebody with ability, and by ability somebody who could motivate the players, galvanise the team, most importantly for me somebody who could improve the players on the coaching pitch day in day out, not overnight but day in day out, and gain improvement in the long term; somebody with managerial experience 'in the lower leagues', that was important to us.

"Experience in itself though doesn't mean a lot unless the track record was good and his track record is very, very sound.

"Alongside that the personal qualities that we were looking for - we wanted somebody who has the drive, the hunger and the commitment to take this great club forward and Paul fits the bill in every aspect and finally, he absolutely has a winning mentality.

"I have touched on the fact he is a bad loser - every great person I have met in this industry is a bad loser."