David Cuffley Manager Glenn Roeder insists he is not feeling the pressure despite Norwich City's bottom six position in the Championship. A record of just four wins in 17 league games has left the Canaries in 19th place ahead of tonight's match at Nottingham Forest - a position that could be worse by kick-off time.

David Cuffley

Manager Glenn Roeder insists he is not feeling the pressure despite Norwich City's bottom six position in the Championship.

A record of just four wins in 17 league games has left the Canaries in 19th place ahead of tonight's match at Nottingham Forest - a position that could be worse by kick-off time.

But despite criticism of results and tough questions from angry fans at the club's annual meeting, Roeder is adamant City's fortunes will improve.

However, he said expecting overnight success was unrealistic.

“For where we were when I took over it was never ever going to be rapid progress in one season, not with the way things are at the football club, without going into great detail,” said Roeder.

“I will argue with anyone that the overall ability of the squad when it's fit is much better than last year's and come the end of the season I feel confident that will be shown.

“What you are always up against, all managers, is, as the years go by, expectations go up for some reason and people are less patient. You are always up against that.

“But I still say the sensible people - and that is normally the silent majority, know the difficulty of the job. If I'd been in a position to spend millions and millions in the summer then we might take a different view, but that is not the case, you know that - 17 went out of here, and a dozen or so came back in, of which only five are our own players.

“At the AGM, as I said, one day I hope to work with all my own players, but that was impossible. You also have to live in the real world, which I have to every day. Sometimes supporters don't have to live in the real world, but I understand that.”

Roeder said he had great faith in his own ability as manager and the quality of his staff.

“I've been around a long, long time. I'm a bit long in the tooth now, I understand that, but I have huge confidence in myself and the staff I have here now,” he said.

“I have huge confidence in the staff - the backroom staff, in my opinion, are far superior now. We need to get it right on the pitch. There are performances this year that say that we are better than last year, but we've lacked consistency and we need to find that, we need to find that as quick as possible.

“You can only ever attack the next game. I think no one is in any doubt the shape we are in at the moment financially, but there is a lot worse than us. Football is getting very close to a big shake-down.

“I am much happier living in the real world and having my eyes open to whatever is going on and not living on fantasy island. I want to get to fantasy island, and we all do.”