Canaries captain Mark Fotheringham has sounded a rallying call to the embattled Norwich City troops as they approach the 'Final 13' series of games which will determine whether they stay up, or whether they go down.

Canaries captain Mark Fotheringham has sounded a rallying call to the embattled Norwich City troops as they approach the 'Final 13' series of games which will determine whether they stay up, or whether they go down.

“It takes brave men, it takes men who are willing to go out and fight for the jersey,” he said.

“It's no secret that it's a great club, it deserves to be in the Championship. Not only that, it deserves to be pushing for the Premier League.

“It is unfortunate we are in the situation we are. We have had a very up-and-down season, but we need to continue to keep working hard for each other and be brave and show confidence in each other and keep believing we are going to get us out of the situation we are in and just take each game as it comes.

“We're in a fight now and we're going to have to see some brave characters that are willing to go and take the ball next week at home.”

Fotheringham dismissed the notion that the advantage held by City's closest rivals in terms of games in hand would affect morale.

“We have got players here who are experienced lads and they've been in this situation before last year at times, so hopefully we are strong enough mentally to come out on top in this,” he said.

“There is still a lot of football to be played - an unlucky 13 games. Burnley next week will be a tough test, Coventry will be a tough test, but it's two home games and we believe we can beat anyone at home.

“Although we lost you can see there are not any players with low confidence - everybody is knocking the ball about well, and we are trying to be as positive as we can.

“We just need a little bit of luck and we never got that today.

“It's a great incentive for Watford, but we can't worry about what other teams are doing, we have to concentrate on ourselves.”

City were beaten by a goal of their own making, another defensive lapse giving Jon Parkin room to fire home just before half-time.

“I think that's the main factor at the moment, we're killing ourselves in both the penalty boxes and we need to concentrate more in terms of being a little bit more solid in those areas and obviously finishing teams off in the opposition penalty box,” Fotheringham said.

“But we are really down because we feel to come here against a team in the top six, but it's the same story every time, we're performing against these teams and we're just not taking the results.

“I always believe if you work hard in your life you get the rub of the green, and the lads here are definitely working hard enough.”

“It's just disappointing that we couldn't take the win because we played really well against a good side in Preston who are well organised and move the ball well, but we matched them in every department in my eyes.”