City boss Glenn Roeder reflected on another day of defensive calamity and admitted: “We might as well put a gun to our heads.” The Canaries' 3-2 defeat at home to Swansea made it 10 goals conceded in the last five home games and left them a precarious 19th in the Championship table.

City boss Glenn Roeder reflected on another day of defensive calamity and admitted: “We might as well put a gun to our heads.”

The Canaries' 3-2 defeat at home to Swansea made it 10 goals conceded in the last five home games and left them a precarious 19th in the Championship table.

Three goals in the space of five minutes turned the game on its head as Jason Scotland, Darren Pratley and Ferrie Bodde cashed in on their hosts' generosity.

Arturo Lupoli, starting a first team match for the first time since mid-September, gave City a 28th-minute lead but Scotland levelled two minutes before the break, and two more goals followed in the first three minutes of the second half.

A late equaliser had given Preston a 2-2 draw at Carrow Road the previous Saturday, but this was even worse.

Said Roeder: “I've been here too often this season already in exactly the same situation. We've had two home games now and taken one point - absolutely crazy.

“We dominated both teams for periods - not the whole game, no one dominates any team for 90 minutes - but we have had the large percentage of the game. We've created chances, we've missed them and we get punished with some diabolical defending.

“The very annoying thing is at Colney on Friday we are going through all their potential routines and having people in places to do the jobs that are required to stop them scoring.”

Pratley scored with a backheader from a Jordi Gomez corner, Bodde after a Gomez backheel.

“The goal in the first few seconds of the second half, the man in the hole, the player told to play in that position every time they had a corner kick, does not do his job correctly,” said Roeder. “You never ever allow anyone to get in front of you. But not only did he get in front of the player in the hole, he got in front of his marker as well and, of course, he just bent and got a flick on it. To compound matters it was straight into David Marshall's hands but David Bell deflected the ball past Marshy and we're off to the most poor start you can imagine in the second half.

“Instead of coming in 1-0 up, could have been 2-0 or even 3-0 up at half-time, then it was 1-1 and within a matter of a minute we're 2-1 down. Absolutely ridiculous - and it was only going to get worse in the next minute or so. We gave the ball away cheaply in the centre of midfield and I don't think we got another touch until Marshy picked the ball out of the net.

“At the moment we might as well put a gun to our heads because you can't concede three goals and expect to score four. That's Fantasy Island stuff - once in a blue moon.”

An Angel Rangel own goal on the hour gave City a glimmer of hope but they failed to salvage a point.

Said Roeder: “We got back in the game, had half an hour to get an equaliser and it didn't quite happen for us. We had two terrific chances in that period - David Bell on the back post after Wes Hoolahan slipped the ball to him, and Jamie Cureton with a skied one from the penalty spot.

“It was a hugely disappointing day and it shouldn't be like this. I should be up here talking about a win. It's becoming too commonplace and we need to eradicate these errors very quickly.”