Midfielder Simon Lappin admitted the Canaries missed the creative spark Darren Huckerby provides in their opening day draw at Preston. Huckerby is still suffering with a groin injury that has robbed him of any game time in pre-season and Lappin believes the Canaries missed the winger's imagination going forward at Deepdale on Saturday.

Midfielder Simon Lappin admitted the Canaries missed the creative spark Darren Huckerby provides in their opening day draw at Preston.

Huckerby is still suffering with a groin injury that has robbed him of any game time in pre-season and Lappin believes the Canaries missed the winger's imagination going forward at Deepdale on Saturday.

Despite an impressive display from Chris Brown, City were unable to carve out any real goalscoring opportunities and often the former Sunderland man and Dion Dublin were left isolated as the City midfield struggled to get forward.

“You need him (Huckerby) in your team,” said Lappin. “He's a fantastic player and we do miss him but he'll be back soon and hopefully back in the team doing what he does best.

“He is someone that can beat players and we missed that a bit today but we are very pleased to come away with a point.”

Lappin was part of a new-look City midfield alongside Julien Brellier and Darel Russell and the trio provided the back four with plenty of protection although he admitted they all still have a lot of work to do on the training field.

“Obviously it still needs a bit of work,” he said. “But that will come playing alongside each other a bit more. It's a good result for us coming here as we knew it was going to be difficult but we got a point and hopefully we can build on it.

“We always knew it was going to be a real test for us - and it's a good point. We maybe rode our luck at time with the amount of set-plays they had but we dug in and it gives us a good platform to build from.”

The City defence coped well against a barrage of set-pieces and the organisation of the back line was real cause for optimism amongst City fans.

“We have worked very hard on that all summer. It's something that the manager emphasised to us at the end of last season. We did a lot of work on it over the summer and there's still a lot of work to do on it.

“I thought the defence were excellent. We were on the back foot a lot of the time and they were superb but defence starts at the front. However, we have got to create more going forward in future to take the pressure off.”