Since Saturday afternoon until the moment I sat down at my computer to write this piece, I have played our match with Sunderland over and over again in my head. Where did it all go wrong?

After such a convincing performance against Newcastle, we have had two less-than-satisfactory performances against two teams we could have, or should have, beaten.

After the game, fans were either blaming the referee, Bassong, or the fact that Klose is injured. I think this is slightly unfair, especially to Bassong, as to be truthful the whole team just wasn’t good enough.

I even heard one fan state very strongly to whoever would listen, that the match’s outcome was a foregone conclusion even before the first ball was kicked. A conspiracy theory that went all the way to the top of the English game.

Like other matches before, there were some dubious refereeing decisions but I don’t think this was the downfall of Norwich, it’s just an indictment of the inconsistency of refereeing in the Premier League this season. What is glaringly obvious is that we are not clinical enough in front of goal – the chances were there to be taken on Saturday, but weren’t.

The crowd went very quiet part way through the game and the atmosphere never returned to that fever-pitched excitement we had during the previous home game against Newcastle. The clappers became missiles to be thrown on the pitch, one missing Larsson’s head by a matter of a few inches, and the crowd left us in no doubt how they felt at the end of the game through a chorus of boos.

For me, the loss is even harder to swallow when Sunderland were by far the worst team I have seen at Carrow Road this season, but then a Big Sam team doesn’t usually play the most attractive football.

There were a couple of good points during the game, Olsson’s cracking shot in the first half and Redmond hitting the woodwork in the second, but they were very few and far between and nothing that could help to get our hopes up about staying up.

Without a game for us this weekend and both Newcastle and Sunderland playing twice by the time we visit Arsenal on the 30th we could be second from bottom. Two weeks ago staying up was in our hands, today we are relying on teams around us to lose. My usual optimism is starting to leave the building.

• Blog post written by Lorraine Taylor