David Cuffley Striker Carl Cort believes defence could be the best form of attack as Norwich City's Championship survival mission becomes tougher with every game.The 6ft 4in forward has enjoyed a new lease of life since signing for the Canaries in December, playing 11 first team games he felt he may never get after a knee injury threatened to end his career.

David Cuffley

Striker Carl Cort believes defence could be the best form of attack as Norwich City's Championship survival mission becomes tougher with every game.

The 6ft 4in forward has enjoyed a new lease of life since signing for the Canaries in December, playing 11 first team games he felt he may never get after a knee injury threatened to end his career.

But far from advocating adventurous attacking football to dig City out of trouble, the 31-year-old Cort thinks their best hope of avoiding relegation to League One is to get tough at the back and try to steal a goal, starting against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road tonight (8pm).

“Every club has certain personnel for a certain situation and I honestly think we have to think about not getting beaten and going into games and trying to nick them 1-0,” he said.

“If you look at a lot of teams at the other end of the table, they're probably not playing half as good a football as we are, but they're doing the ugly things well. It's down to the squad to have that rigidness about ourselves.

“We've got a lot of talented players who like to play the game in a pretty way but we're in a situation where we can't afford to do that.

“Nobody's saying don't play football in the right way, but we just need results and that's the most important thing.”

Cort's tactical plan may be a case of easier said than done given that City have kept just five clean sheets all season, and only one away from home, in a goalless draw at Barnsley.

But he insisted the mood at Colney was not despondent despite a run of seven matches without a win, which has made City prime candidates for the drop.

“From a neutral's perspective you wouldn't know we were in the situation we are,” he said.

“The mood's still good. We still believe we're in with a chance of staying up even though the other results did go totally against us on Saturday. What we need is six wins out of 11 which I think, the way we're performing, does give us that hope that it is possible.”

City supporters' sense of resignation was all too apparent during Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Coventry, but Cort urged them not to despair.

“We can understand the way they feel. For such a big club like this to be in the situation we are we can understand their frustrations, but it is far from over and if we believe that and they believe that, we have got more of chance,” he said.

“We did feel on Saturday that there was a bit of negativity coming from some supporters, but I don't think they realise how important their positive vibes are for us.

“We have to make sure we're in this league next season. We've got a big one against QPR and they're playing for a play-off spot so there are two teams going into tonight's game with massive incentives.”

Cort has started the last five matches after shrugging off a series of knocks.

He said: “The body's coping - just about. It's been weird because it's been minor injuries. I've been able to cope with them, doing the best I can just to make sure I'm fit for Saturday.

“It's like a new lease of life for me. I'm enjoying playing my football. We know it's not an ideal situation for us to be in but every game I go out there I feel good despite the little niggly problems I have at the moment. I'm just delighted to be involved in every game.”