Jonathan Redhead Defender John Kennedy scored his first senior goal for nearly five years last night but admitted it counted for little as Norwich City slumped to a disappointing defeat against Derby County.

Jonathan Redhead

Defender John Kennedy scored his first senior goal for nearly five years last night but admitted it counted for little as Norwich City slumped to a disappointing defeat against Derby County.

Kennedy powered home a header from a pinpoint Sammy Clingan corner on 63 minutes after they had slipped 2-0 down to the Rams.

But hopes of a City comeback were crushed with 10 minutes remaining as Przemylaw Kazmierczak scored the home side's third of the evening to give Paul Jewell's team a deserved three points and bring the Canaries' two-match winning run to an abrupt end.

And afterwards a candid Kennedy accepted it was the right result and City had played badly on a bitterly cold night in the east Midlands.

"I suppose the first 10 minutes we started all right but after that the performance was poor," said the on-loan Celtic man.

"We were second to every ball and weren't in the game.

"We didn't deserve anything from the night and we know that and we're disappointed with ourselves and we've got to pick ourselves up now."

Following two wins in a week - the Carrow Road successes against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers - Glenn Roeder's men were looking to make it three in a row, before they head north to take on in-form Burnley on Saturday.

But City proved their inconsistency with a poor display and Kennedy admitted it is difficult to understand how the Canaries could be so good one week and so bad the next.

"It's hard to pinpoint something, we just knew that something wasn't right," the 25-year-old said.

"We weren't getting to the balls we should have; we weren't winning tackles we should have and we were gifting things on a plate for them. It was a poor night for us.

"We had a little period when they were backs to the wall a little bit and we were getting a bit of joy, but we didn't manage to capitalise on that and then obviously they go and score a third and that kills us.

"There was a little glimmer of hope in the second half but overall Derby deserved the win."