I can’t remember the last time I walked out of Carrow Road after defeat against a side below us in the Championship table and fans have still been upbeat on the whole.





That was the case on Saturday though and it shows just how far Norwich City have progressed since their last defeat in the league away at Milwall.

Saturday’s game was a strange one, Derby looked very poor for the first 30 minutes and if it wasn’t for the truly horrendous officiating and Marco Stiepermann’s one-on-one chance smashing the crossbar we could have been 2-0 up.

However too often this season the words ‘could’ and ‘should’ have been used to describe the intricacies of City’s Carrow Road performances.

Despite being on top for the majority of the opening 45 minutes going into the break 1-0 down was far from ideal.

I don’t think David Nugent’s goal got enough credit from anyone though, the touch to get it out of his feet and the beautiful curling finish past Angus Gunn when watched back should be applauded by City fans.

It would have been lovely if we had that kind of clinical edge at the weekend.

It was always going to be interesting to see how Daniel Farke’s side would bounce back after going behind given the fact it hasn’t happened much this season.

MORE: I wouldn’t swap Angus Gunn for anyone, says FarkeOn the whole I thought we went about it very well although it was crystal clear that tiredness was slowly but surely engulfing the squad as a whole. We looked compact and professional for the beginning of the second half and it was rewarded with a beautiful towering header from Timm Klose who was clearly delighted to add a goal to his influential performance list this season.

I know Klose admitted himself that he slightly regretted taking the ball straight back to the centre spot and wanting to go on and grab a winning goal.

The final 15 minutes showed naivety from our boys but it’s hard to be angry at them for it.

It’s evident that this team wants to take all three points away from every game despite the opposition and given the recent home form it was even more apparent on Saturday.

However, throwing men forward and not having your wingers track back was always going to be dangerous.

We had a lucky escape when super Bradley’s goal was disallowed for offside after Klose was sent packing his bags and Derby had men over in the box. We weren’t given another ‘get out of jail free card’ when Sam Winnall rolled home the easiest goal he’ll score this season minutes later though.

Ivo Pinto looked like he was fuming after throwing his body on the line while Yanic Wildschut was jogging back and the rest of the defence were all over the shop.

MORE: Big injury boost for CityI applaud the efforts from Norwich to go hunting for the win but with hindsight Daniel Farke will surely look back at the final 10 minutes of Saturday with disappointment.

Like I said though, it’s very tough to be angry at a squad that before the defeat to the Rams had gone nine league games unbeaten and came off the back of a demanding East Anglian Derby and 120 minutes against Premier League opposition.

With all of that being said there’s no excuses this Tuesday night against a Wolves side who have also had an incredibly demanding few weeks which included 120 minutes against a ridiculously strong Man City side.

Yes, Wolves have spent lots of money to take them close to the top of the table but if Farke’s side wants any chance of success this season the home form has to get better and that needs to start as soon as possible.

The injury list is a worry but there’s still enough depth to get through games like this. We go into this encounter as the underdogs, that might play into our hands given the away performances we’ve seen this season.

I’m proud of what I’ve seen this season but we’re now far enough into the campaign to have learnt from mistakes and put them right. Let’s have some ruthlessness at Carrow Road. A half decent referee wouldn’t go amiss either...