Chris Lakey Norwich City will try to find some home comforts at Ashton Gate this afternoon - and prove Glenn Roeder's theory that the disadvantages of playing away are all in the mind.

Chris Lakey

Norwich City will try to find some home comforts at Ashton Gate this afternoon - and prove Glenn Roeder's theory that the disadvantages of playing away are all in the mind.

"I have always been at a loss why there is such a difference generally speaking in home results and away results," he said. "There is nothing different, other than one way the crowd is cheering you, the other way the crowd is booing you - but why should that make any difference to you?

"In fact when, you're booed a proper player plays better.

"It is a great mystery - other than it is something to do with what's going on in their head."

The City boss says his team will set out their stall as if they were the hosts, and hope they will be rewarded.

"We have tried to do that, that's the attitude we have tried to do away from home," he said. "We did that at Sheffield United and overall we did it very well, other than take our chances and concede a couple of poor goals in quick succession in the second half."

The mood in the camp is good, following last week's 5-1 thumping of Colchester at Carrow Road when, finally, it all came right in front of goal.

"We're obviously delighted to for once put most of our chances away, although we still missed plenty," said Roeder. "But you don't score five very often during a season so it was nice to do that.

"But the mood in the camp has always been fantastic, it really has, even in the dodgy month we had they kept their spirits remarkably high and their beliefs strong.

"Two of those defeats that yielded no points could have easily yielded six, four a minimum - a draw and a win - but we got nothing. So we knew they were playing well again and they took it out on Colchester."

Jamie Cureton was the chief beneficiary, scoring a hat-trick against his former team.

"I always expect Jamie to score," said Roeder. "I can hardly remember a game he has been involved in where he hasn't had an opportunity to score.

"Rightly so he is full of himself at the moment after scoring a hat-trick against his old team. There is not a bad hat-trick and if you analyse it, the two goals in open play were very good. And there is never a bad penalty as long as it hits the back of the net, so it was a good hat-trick."

Bristol City, promoted last summer, are expected to be a very different proposition, although their position as second-placed team in the Championship disguises a run of form that has seen them take just three points from their last five games, the last two of which they have lost.

"They deserve to be where they are," said Roeder. "It has been a long, hard season for them. People might say they have over-achieved - I wouldn't say that.

"Generally speaking, not always, the league table doesn't lie, so they deserve to be where they are. They have had a little bit of a rocky spell I suppose just recently but they can see the winning line."