David Cuffley Goalkeeper David Marshall does not expect a mass exodus of Norwich City players in the summer after relegation to League One, admitting: "We've just taken this club down.

David Cuffley

Goalkeeper David Marshall does not expect a mass exodus of Norwich City players in the summer after relegation to League One, admitting: "We've just taken this club down."

The future of a string of senior players is uncertain after the Canaries' exit from the Championship was confirmed following yesterday's 4-2 defeat at Charlton.

But the 24-year-old Scotland international believes City's fate this season hardly serves as a reference to future employers.

Marshall, who has one year left on his Carrow Road contract, said: "We've taken the club down. It's not as if there are boys in there, superstars who are going to get good moves when they're getting relegated so we just have to plug on. Sometimes it's out of some of the boys' hands but the board decide it.

"I've no problems staying here because I don't think there are clubs lining up for any of the boys when we've just had 46 games to stay in the Championship and got relegated."

The manner of yesterday's defeat, with shell-shocked City 3-0 down inside half an hour, was unacceptable to Marshall, who flew off on Scotland duty last night for a B international against Northern Ireland on Wednesday. He said: "I wasn't expecting that. It just wasn't good enough to be 3-0 down when we're supposed to be fighting to stay in the league - incredible, really. I just can't explain it. Two minutes before the first goal we heard that Plymouth had scored against Barnsley. It didn't distract us, we could hear the fans cheering, but it was a bread and butter cross to the back post and the boy scored. Maybe we just thought we had to go and get goals and opened up a bit."

City's first-half display earned a rocket from manager Bryan Gunn, said Marshall.

"He had a go, obviously, he wasn't happy. Sometimes it's not just about how good you are, but the spirit. We never showed any fighting spirit and he had a go at us because we were not showing enough bottle, or pride. He was spot-on.

"It's horrible playing in front of 3,000 supporters when you're 3-0 down after 30 minutes. I can hear everything that's going on and I'm not going to be stupid and say anything less. The supporters are entitled to their opinion - we've been relegated and it's not good enough."

City won just one of their last six matches as their survival hopes gradually slipped away.

But Marshall said: "I don't think it's been half a dozen games. We've had 46 games, we never played well enough under Glenn (Roeder). The team at the point when he got sacked weren't playing for him, so he was gone.

"It was all about pride today with the fans singing about being fit to wear the shirts, but it shouldn't come to that. Even if you're not a good football player, you've got to show 100 per cent and I don't think we did that in the first half an hour. Realistically I think if we'd won today and showed a bit of pride, the fans would have been disappointed but they could not have faulted our effort in the last game."