I let the boys down with my miss - Jamie

Jamie Cureton struggled to explain the glaring stoppage time miss that prevented the Canaries from taking a point from their clash with promotion-chasing Stoke on Tuesday night.

Cureton, who had scored three goals in his previous four outings, stabbed the ball wide from inside the six-yard box as the visitors held on to win 1-0.

"I'm bitterly disappointed. I felt sick to be honest," he said. "I should be tucking away those sort of chances with my eyes closed. I'm gutted and feel I let the boys down at the end. I'm adjusting to hit it and it just clips my knee and that makes it stop in mid air. I tried to poke it instinctively and it's gone wide.

"I seem to be able to score outside of the box at the moment. My goalscoring has been fine. I felt I was in the game, felt good and sharp and then in the last minute those are the chances you dream of. It was very frustrating because it was probably the best we've played in recent weeks. We felt we were on top of things and doing well. We just couldn't score and then they get one from a long throw."

Cureton backed Glenn Roeder's post match criticism with only relegation haunted Leicester scoring fewer Championship league goals this campaign.

"Our goalscoring isn't great as a team," he said. "I'm top with 11 and should be on 15 plus. The other boys probably feel they should have more as well. It's been a problem all season and when you miss chances like I did it doesn't help."

Last season's Championship golden boot winner is adamant City can halt their current tailspin at Sheffield United this weekend.

"It seems when you have such a great run and then start to lose you can't pick momentum back up," said Cureton. "I felt after Barnsley we could get on another run but we got beaten at home to Blackpool, then a point at Watford and then we've lost and lost again. We're stuttering at the minute although you've got to take the positives and take it into Sheffield United. Games come thick and fast this month so with a disappointment you won't the next one to come quick."

On-loan defender Alex Pearce also believes he should have scored in Tuesday night's game.

Cureton's late chance came about after Pearce got his head to skipper Mark Fotheringham's corner - and the 19-year-old blamed himself for not hitting the net in the first place.

He said: "I should have scored that, without a doubt. Put that one on me -I should have put that away from six yards out. It should have been in the back of the net."

Pearce, starting the match in the absence of the suspended Gary Doherty, and central defensive partner Jason Shackell dealt well with Stoke's aerial and physical threat, but on one of the few occasions Mamady Sidibe got the upper hand, they were punished, the giant striker rising between three yellow shirts to meet Rory Delap's long throw with a backheader that looped over goalkeeper David Marshall for the only goal.

"That's all it takes - one moment. And when you're up against Stoke you're going to have to deal with them all night and the one we didn't deal with, they scored from, so it's disappointing," said Pearce.

"I thought we outplayed them in the first half and in the second half and created a lot of chances but we just couldn't take them."

"It's a little bit tighter down the bottom now but I think we'll be all right. We just need a couple of good results and we're back up there."