Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder is hoping that successive games at Carrow Road can help provide a springboard for City to begin showing improved form on their travels.The weekend defeat at Burnley was City's fifth in eight this season - an itinerary that has earned them just five points from a possible 24.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder is hoping that successive games at Carrow Road can help provide a springboard for City to begin showing improved form on their travels.

The weekend defeat at Burnley was City's fifth in eight this season - an itinerary that has earned them just five points from a possible 24.

City entertain Preston next Saturday and Swansea the week after, before City hit the road again with a Saturday evening trip to Nottingham Forest on November 22 - by which time Roeder is hoping he will have solved the travel problem and avoided another possible embarrassment in front of a national TV audience.

“We need to sort the men out from the boys in the next seven days because we now need to go and win two home games until we get an opportunity to pick up a point or three away from home next time we travel,” said Roeder as he analysed the repercussions of Saturday's Turf Moor surrender.

“I was hugely disappointed. We have got to do something about our form away from home because this is the fifth time we've lost away from home. It is a very bad habit that we need to break quickly.

“We rode our luck a little bit in the first half but we got in 0-0 at half-time. No one was disappointed with that. I felt we could still play better. We allowed them to have too much of the ball, but going down the tunnel for the second half I thought we would step on and perform better than we did in the first half and it didn't happen.”

The work starts afresh on the Colney training fields - but Roeder admits it's up to the players to rediscover the bravery he claimed was lacking.

“We can talk about it, but at the end of the day they have to show that themselves,” he said.

“We can bring that to their attention and show them instances where I felt we didn't show enough for the ball. The person on the ball didn't have enough options today and I didn't like that.

“I have always maintained bravery is not kicking someone from behind, any silly fool can go through someone from behind and kick him up in the air. Bravery for me in football is when you are not having the best of games and you still keep making angles to receive the ball, you keep running, you try and help your team-mate out of a difficult spot that he might be in and I thought we had too many players that didn't do that and from that point of view they have let down each other and I didn't like that because they are a good group of lads, a decent bunch of lads but they have to find a much meaner streak away from home.

“Anyone can be brave in front of 25,000 people at Carrow Road, but, that at the moment, is proving to be false courage. We need to be showing much more courage when we come away on our travels and starts dominating teams away from home.

“Feeling sorry for yourself is the last thing that we need. We need to be a lot bolder and stronger and get on with the situation we have found ourselves in, which we don't want to be in - but the men have got to come out and play for us.”

City have kept a clean sheet just twice this season - in a goalless draw at Barnsley which followed the home win over Sheffield United - and as soon as they went behind to the first of Chris Eagles' two goals on Saturday, they were in trouble.

“Of course, you prefer to be in front, but if it's 0-0 after 60 minutes games do stretch and there is more room to play in and there is long enough to score a goal,” he said. “But you have got to keep a clean sheet - and we have only kept a couple of clean sheets.”