Norwich City chairman Roger Munby is Hull born and bred - but he would like nothing better than to see the Canaries bounce back from their East Anglian derby nightmare at the expense of his home city club.

By CHRIS WISE

Norwich City chairman Roger Munby is Hull born and bred - but he would like nothing better than to see the Canaries bounce back from their East Anglian derby nightmare at the expense of his home city club.

The Canaries will have a big point to prove against the Tigers on Saturday after slumping to a painful 3-1 defeat at Portman Road and Munby is hoping to see them take full advantage of the first of two home games in the space of four days.

City also have a Carrow Road date with Leicester to look forward to next Tuesday and were they to emerge from the double header with maximum points then the pain of Portman Road will have been at least partially erased.

There will certainly be no divided loyalties for Munby when a struggling Hull outfit attempt to inflict more misery on Peter Grant's side - far from it.

“I was born and raised in Humberside and have always followed Hull's fortunes closely. But Norwich City are my team and it goes without saying that I want them to win on Saturday,” he said.

“Over the course of the season I want Hull to do well and I hope they retain their Championship status. In fact I'll believe they'll do just that. But when it comes to games between Hull and Norwich there's only one team I will be supporting!”

Munby is continuing to look on the bright side, despite City's glaringly below-par display at Ipswich.

“There's no getting away from the fact that it was an extremely disappointing performance on Sunday but, generally speaking, the results have been encouraging since Peter took over,” he said. “And it's also worth remembering that we have played two more games away than we have at Carrow Road. The next two fixtures will redress the balance so after the Leicester game we'll have a slightly better idea of where we stand. If things go well we'll be on the coat-tails of the sides in the top six, so it's important we put the Ipswich defeat behind us as quickly as possible.”

Munby reckons the City players will want to make a point to the fans after seeing at first hand how Sunday's defeat at Ipswich had affected them.

“As chairman I always pop into the dressing after the game whether we have won, drawn or lost - and I can assure supporters that the players felt the pain of defeat as much as anyone,” he said. “They knew they had under-performed and you only had to look at their faces to see how much they were hurting.

“I think Peter said it all after the match. There is a lot of ability in our squad but, on the day, they were not in the right mindset to compete, which was very disappointing for us all. I am sure it will be different on Saturday.”