Daniel Farke backed his Norwich City players to bounce back from their disjointed Boxing Day display at Watford, as he steered clear of criticism after just a second defeat in 17 matches.

The Canaries saw their lead at the Championship summit cut to four points thanks to the 1-0 defeat at a stormy Vicarage Road but have two home games against mid-table opposition this week, against QPR on Tuesday and Barnsley on Saturday.

“The Championship is relentless," said City's head coach. "It’s always difficult after a great run of wins like in the last weeks, you are not able to enjoy this and to celebrate because the games are coming thick and fast.

“The great thing after a loss is you don’t have much time to be too down, in two-and-a-half days we have to deliver again and we know this.

“We know also in this league it’s not like you win 46 games in a row and are promoted quite easily, it’s more like it’s all about consistency.

“Also what you have to do after a poor result - I wouldn’t label it an unbelievably poor performance, it was not like we were at our best, we can play better - then you have to make sure in the next game you are at your best again in order to be there with the answer and a good result.

“That’s the claim for us for the next game.”

POINTERS: Five key observations from City's defeat at Watford

Defeat brought an end to a five-game losing streak for the leaders, with slack defending ahead of Ismaila Sarr's close-range finish in the 39th minute combined with some wayward finishing in a game which the visitors had dominated.

“I have to calm myself down, I can’t be too strict because the lads have done fantastic so far and we are still living with many injuries of key players. To show this consistency and quality of performance was great," Farke continued.

“But also I don’t want to let my levels and my standards drop and for that even after such a great run I don’t want us to be too proud of ourselves and enjoy ourselves too much.

“I don’t want to let the levels drop and for that I will point a few fingers internally about a few things we can do better, but overall it’s definitely for sure that the lads have done fantastic.

“It’s not like we will dwell on this result in such a difficult away game against a club with big ambitions who have played many years in a row at Premier League level.

“When you lose such an away game, even though you dominate in many periods, it’s not like the world has ended. We keep going.”