Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder believes a referee's assistant cost his side two points on Saturday.The Canaries boss claimed Lee Croft's early effort, which was ruled out for offside, should have stood, and reckoned his team were denied at least two penalties.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder believes a referee's assistant cost his side two points on Saturday.

The Canaries boss claimed Lee Croft's early effort, which was ruled out for offside, should have stood, and reckoned his team were denied at least two penalties.

But when the dust finally settled on an absorbing game, the fact remained that City's strikers had misfired again, leaving them with just a solitary point after failing to score in a match for the first time in 14 attempts.

"One of the most one-sided 0-0s I have ever been involved in, either as a player or manager," was Roeder's verdict.

"It was ridiculous. We have got to start doing something about these missed opportunities. When we do have the ball in the back of the net we are quite adamant, looking out our Prozone stuff on the video, that Crofty's level or even half a metre onside."

After Croft's disallowed effort, Roeder's frustrations grew as Dion Dublin hit the woodwork twice, Darel Russell was upended in the area, Jamie Cureton was denied by the keeper, then shot over, and Ched Evans saw efforts blocked or go wide.

"It was ridiculous," said Roeder. "I said to them afterwards, 'how many saves did their keeper make?' And the lads said, 'hardly any'. One has gone over the crossbar, one or two have gone high and wide - we're not working the goalkeeper enough and there is not a day goes by on the training ground at Colney where we don't practice crossing and finishing in general, finishing around the box.

"He might have pulled off one or two saves, but they were saves that he would have been expected to make. Both Ched and Cureton had fantastic chances to win the game and so did Crofty at the end. Gary Doherty also had an opportunity - we just lost count. It will be interesting to see the stats to see how much we have let Leicester get away with a point here today."

Russell was involved in two incidents with visiting keeper Ben Alwnick: in the first half the two were involved in a goalmouth melee as the City midfielder challenged for a loose ball - both ending up in the referee's notebook.

"I think the referee got that right," said Roeder. "We looked at it and initially we thought a punch had been thrown, but it was handbags at nine paces and shouldn't warrant a red card."

Incident number two was different, Alnwick coming out and colliding with Russell, who was chasing a Cureton flick-on into the area - a challenge which left many fans, and Roeder, waiting for a penalty.

"We thought so," he said. "But not just us, everyone, every club, every team, you live on a wing and a prayer with officials.

"I have never moaned about them and I have never criticised them and I don't really particularly want to go down that road, otherwise people start thinking you are making excuses.

"What I will say is they are honest people - but they do make mistakes, because they are human beings. But it is bloody frustrating when the mistakes they make at the moment seem to be against us."

The frustrations boiled over just before half-time when Roeder and his opposite number Ian Holloway were involved in some "verbal handbags" of their own, as referee Tony Bates booked five players in the space of 10 minutes.

But they were nothing compared to Roeder's feelings when he looks at what might have been.

"We have had three or four draws, we have created a stackful of chances and we are just not taking them," he said. "Instead of propelling us halfway up the table and away from danger already, today it has only kept us five points above the bottom three.

"Having said that it is a hell of an achievement from the end of October when there was only eight points on the scoreboard, now there is 32."