Norwich City showed their Championship class for Cardiff City boss Neil Harris after the Bluebirds’ 2-0 defeat at Carrow Road.

Harris guided Cardiff to the play-offs last season, and brought his team to Norfolk as one of the form sides in the division.

But Norwich were too good in all departments to open up a five-point gap to the rest at the summit.

“As much as we weren’t at our levels, I think they showed their class as well,” he said. “They have good players, and they are top of the league and five or six points clear for a reason. They are consistent and find ways to win games. It’s for us to aspire to be at their quality.

“I think they have a more in-depth squad from being in the Premier League last season, and that’s what we aspire to get to. They’ve got some real experience but also some real energy in their play, and you can see that in the changes they could make.

“We’re capable of competing with the top sides. We’ve certainly seen it this season at times, and last season. That’s where we want to be ourselves.”

Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell struck from long range with Cardiff offering a sporadic threat on set pieces.

“I just felt the energy levels weren’t there.” said Harris. “We didn’t get close enough to people, and that half-a-yard can make such a massive difference against the top sides.

"When you are playing against good teams, you can’t give them opportunities like we did, especially at the start of the second half.

“I thought the ten minutes before half time was our best spell. It gave us belief at half time that we’d get back into the game, but we started the second half poorly with a couple of cheap turnovers.

“I can’t criticise the players for a lack of effort, not at all. But the goals summed us up, really. When you give those opportunities to players like they’ve got, even from 25 yards, they find the bottom corner.

"“We’ve won five games from the seven which have fallen in this three-week period. We have got a foundation, and we’ve got three games before the turn of the year – Brentford, Wycombe and Rotherham – where I expect us to pick points up and be on track with the points total required to be a top six side.”