Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder has called on his players to lay the foundations for another run of form this afternoon - and bury the ghost of Gigg Lane at the same time.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder has called on his players to lay the foundations for another run of form this afternoon - and bury the ghost of Gigg Lane at the same time.

The Canaries' run of nine games unbeaten came to a grinding halt in the FA Cup third round replay at Bury on Tuesday when they were beaten 2-1 - a match from which manager Glenn Roeder said he could find no positives.

The league run - eight unbeaten - remains intact, but Roeder wants to see the slate wiped clean against Leicester today - and prove that Foxes manager Ian Holloway's midweek scouting trip to the north-west was a waste of time.

"We are looking forward to the game with a lot of confidence in getting that game from Tuesday out of our system," said Roeder.

"I know Ian Holloway was at the game - but the Norwich team he saw the other night and the shape we played, the players we played, the formation we played won't resemble the team that is going to play Saturday against his Leicester.

"I said to them at a team meeting yesterday that we could go through that game minute by minute and all I would get was negatives out of it. I didn't think there were any positives to come out of it. It was just one of those games that unfortunately you have just got to zip up, as much as it hurt, and forget about it, because we have now got bigger fish to fry.

"It was one of those nights, and, hands in the air, we didn't play well in either game.

"But we can't dwell on that, we haven't got time to dwell, games are coming up, league games with three points at stake and we now need to start a second good run that I spoke about.

"We have now had six wins, five draws and three defeats since I came to the club, 23 points - we need another run of 23 points in this next batch of games and then we will be sitting in a different position to where we are now.

"Thank goodness we did have that run - had we not it just makes you realise how difficult it would have been - and how well they have done to climb four points above the bottom three.

"But it is relentless, it is a relentless march and a relentless slog."

City sit just one place and one point above Leicester - but if results go their way they could jump three valuable spots up the Championship ladder. It would need Barnsley to lose at QPR, Coventry to struggle at home to Burnley and, hard as it may be for City fans to accept, Ipswich to win at Blackpool.

"There is no bigger game than the one coming up at the weekend, with them sitting a point below us," said Roeder. "And we have to go there soon as well, so we have to make sure we win this game.

"It's our most important game of the season - because it is the next one.

"We are all aware of where we are in the table, we are very aware that in Milan Mandaric, Olly (Holloway) is going to have plenty of money to spend, and he seems to be spending plenty of it at the moment.

"He has been able to buy plenty of players. Going by last week's result (a

2-0 win over Coventry) perhaps they are starting to settle in, but we are back at Carrow Road where we are doing nicely at the moment, so we will let him worry about us because wenot concerned about playing Leicester."