Chris Lakey Norwich City may appeal against Gary Doherty's red card on Saturday as manager Bryan Gunn prepares to begin remedial work on his backline. With Doherty facing a two-game ban and the possibility of on-loan Jonathan Grounds being recalled by Middlesbrough, Gunn has to act fast when the transfer window reopens tomorrow - with Stoke's Andrew Davies expected to be joining until the end of the season.

Chris Lakey

Norwich City may appeal against Gary Doherty's red card on Saturday as manager Bryan Gunn prepares to begin remedial work on his backline.

With Doherty facing a two-game ban and the possibility of on-loan Jonathan Grounds being recalled by Middlesbrough, Gunn has to act fast when the transfer window reopens tomorrow - with Stoke's Andrew Davies expected to be joining until the end of the season.

“It was always a priority and something we'll be speaking about and looking at over the weekend,” he said. “The market opens again on Tuesday. We'll have a look at that and the video again to see if Gary Doherty's challenge deserves a red card. We'll go through the process, but we will need to look through that situation if it continues to be a red card.”

Grounds' loan spell ends on March 7 - with Middlesbrough reluctant to agree to any longer.

“We asked if we could have him through to the end of the season, but he is a Middlesbrough player and we totally understand their position to possibly take him back,” said Gunn. “They can take him back any time from today to March 7 - with Gary Doherty and the Jonathan situation we need to look at that closely.”

Gunn has got Adrian Leijer, brought in from Fulham last week, but he didn't figure at the weekend and will be given a run-out in tomorrow's reserve team game at Birmingham.

Gunn refused to blame Doherty, or keeper David Marshall, whose poor goal kick led to the City defender bringing down Dele Adebola for a penalty just before half-time.

“I don't dig people out - if people make mistakes and they own up to the mistakes you can't ask any more,” said Gunn, who saw a door open and then close when referee Andy D'Urso refused a huge penalty appeal with 20 minutes to go.

“As long as they learn from the mistakes and the mistakes don't continue to come along. I am disappointed for David Marshall as well because I know what it's like being a goalkeeper in that situation and when you look at the video again and you see Gary Doherty getting back in, he gets a toe on the ball, but obviously there's contact with the man as well. I've only seen it once or twice so maybe I'll study that again.

“At 2-1 down at half-time, with 10 men, we made tactical changes and asked all the lads to believe in the fact they could go out and get a result. I think they certainly believed that.

“The way they were playing to up to 71 minutes had we got something you would have hoped they could have gone on, but at the end of the day we got no points on the board and we've got to focus on the next job, which is Preston away.

“But we showed in our previous two away games that we can go and get results away from home now. We will work during the week and hope we can do that.”

It was a bad day at the office, but the performance of striker Carl Cort provided some solace for Gunn.

“I hope he gets good marks in the press because he did a fantastic job again today,” said Gunn. “He is a player who has obviously had his injury problems and he has to be managed from Tuesday to Saturday with the midweek games, but now we've got a full week there will be a programme set for Carl to work on in the knowledge he will be fit for next Saturday.

“He has got everything - he has a tremendous physique, he's strong, he holds the ball up. It helped us move from one end of the pitch to another and it's something that Norwich haven't had since Iwan Roberts, Dion Dublin as well. So if we can get Carl's fitness levels up and he continues to perform like he did today and like he did at Wolves, he's a player that we will certainly try and get into the team.”

It was Bristol City's sixth win in seven Championship games - and their manager Gary Johnson believes that offers hope to his Norwich counterpart.

“Not so long ago we were in the bottom half of the table,” he said. “To give the boys a lift I told them we should start aiming for the play-off positions and they have responded in really good fashion. Now we can go into the final third of the season with a chance of pushing for a top six finish and we are all really looking forward to the challenge.

“I thought it was a fantastic Championship game with plenty of good football from both sides. All credit to Norwich. They had a real go at us.”