DAVID CUFFLEY Skipper Adam Drury admitted City could be staring at a relegation dogfight if they fail to recover swiftly from a shattering home defeat by Plymouth. Saturday's 3-1 reverse in front of the lowest crowd of the season at Carrow Road made it just five points from the last eight games for the Canaries, leaving them 17th in the Coca-Cola Championship, the same position in the table as when Nigel Worthington was sacked in October.

DAVID CUFFLEY

Skipper Adam Drury admitted City could be staring at a relegation dogfight if they fail to recover swiftly from a shattering home defeat by Plymouth.

Saturday's 3-1 reverse in front of the lowest crowd of the season at Carrow Road made it just five points from the last eight games for the Canaries, leaving them 17th in the Coca-Cola Championship, the same position in the table as when Nigel Worthington was sacked in October.

Manager Peter Grant promised changes after three goals in 16 second-half minutes destroyed his side, and the 28-year-old captain said he couldn't argue with the manager's verdict.

Drury said: “Everyone should be nervous. There shouldn't be anyone who isn't after a performance like there was today. He's got every right to do that, because with the performances on the pitch you could say that he needs to change it.

“There were a few home truths said and you could hear from the crowd at the end how they felt about it and you could understand why.

“If we're not going to play good football - and you're not all the time - you've got to show passion and commitment, and we've got ourselves in a dogfight now.”

Talk of pushing for a play-off place was rendered meaningless by City's second-half collapse and Drury admitted: “The way we're playing at the minute, that's a million miles away. We're looking the other way down the table and if we don't drag ourselves out of it very quickly it's very hard to get ourselves out of it.

"You only have to look at other clubs in the past that have got involved in that sort of fight and you know you're in an uphill battle.”

Though Youssef Safri gave City an interval lead from a direct free-kick with his first goal for 16 months, three set-piece goals caught them cold after the break, two from identical free-kicks from Hungarian Akos Buzsaky.

Said Drury: “I still don't think we played particularly well even though we were 1-0 up. We still had a few chances and once you go in at half-time 1-0 up you've given yourself a platform to build on. We had a few more chances in the second half and didn't take them and they've scored two free-kicks and one from a corner.

“You can hold your hands up and say he's bent two in from free-kicks but at the same time you can say, well, how did we give the free-kicks away and was the wall in the right place and analyse it, like I'm sure they would do with Saf's goal. It's a great skill but at the same time could we have stopped it?”

City have now been doubled by Crystal Palace and Plymouth, with a trip to Burnley next on the agenda.

“No disrespects to Plymouth, but if we want to be high up in this league then they're the sort of teams we should be beating,” said Drury.

“They came here and deserved their win. But if we want to get out of this league or be up the other end of it, we've got to be getting the results. It doesn't always mean playing great football and great passing football, which everyone associates with Norwich City. In games like today it didn't really happen but we have to be able to grind out a 1-0 win and we didn't do that.

“That's when you have to roll your sleeves up and do the horrible stuff and fight and scrap for everything.

“Burnley is going to be another tough game. You know that straightaway. First and foremost, if we don't go there and battle and scrap for everything, we're going to come away with nothing. Once you've done the scrapping and battling, then you can play your football. You have to do the hard bit, the ugly side first, which the gaffer said just now. No one's going to let you play football, we've got to learn that.”