The harsh lessons continue for Jamal Lewis as Norwich City’s days in the Premier League move to a close, after defeat at Watford left a particularly “sour taste” for the left-back.

The Northern Ireland international felt the Canaries had struck a better balance between attack and defence at Vicarage Road, only to see the hosts cancel out Emi Buendia’s early opener.

The sixth successive defeat leaves Daniel Farke’s team on the verge of relegation, which would be sealed by a defeat to West Ham at Carrow Road on Saturday.

“Collectively and individually we are really disappointed,” Lewis admitted. “We felt like we had a solid performance, but at this level that’s the bare minimum to get points.

“We thought for majority of the game we defended well and created some chances; we had a real sour taste in our mouth after the game.

“We looked at the goals and where we could’ve prevented them, there’s small positives to take, but at the end of the day we really needed the three points.”

The Canaries still had hopes of pulling off a great escape when the season resumed but conceding 11 goals and scoring just once in five league losses has made football behind closed doors particularly miserable for City.

“I think almost all the games we’ve played coming back have been ‘must win’ games,” Lewis continued. “We’re bottom of the table and we’ve failed to put points on the board, which is obviously disappointing, we expected to restart better than that.

“I think from here on out and from the restart, it’s about pride, doing it for the fans and the club.”

The Hammers arrive sitting four points clear of the bottom three and City are on the verge of equalling an unwanted club record of seven consecutive league defeats.

“We just have to play with freedom and be good in both boxes, defend well,” Lewis added, speaking to City’s website. “Sometimes we do one or the other, we defend well and don’t create enough chances up top or we have a good game up top and don’t defend well.

“It’s about putting all those aspects together and coming with a complete performance, we don’t want to end the season with no wins or no points after the restart, that’s our main objective right now.”