CITY boss Glenn Roeder has called on the 12th man to get behind the Norwich team even more than usual as he prepares a squad reshuffle ready for tomorrow's clash with Derby.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference, the Canaries manager said despite an obvious defensive shake-up being required for tomorrow's game, he wasn't giving any clues away.

"I'm not telling anyone anything, why do we want to help Derby County?" he said. "We've got our own problems to worry about, we need our supporters tomorrow probably more than any other time this year in the game tomorrow, because of the situation we've got in central defence.

"We can't hide that from Paul Jewell - he knows Kennedy's out, he knows Dejan is suspended, he knows Grounds has gone back and he knows Doherty is injured. You can't hide that, but I'm not telling him anything else.  We need the fans tomorrow more than ever because I think they'll recognise the problems we have with injuries in centre of defence and with Stefanovic suspended - I think they'll recognise that and I'd like to think they'll get behind us tomorrow even more than they usually do."

With three of his strongest defenders currently out of action, Roeder added the team would still be fully prepared to take on the Rams: "All this situation creates is that we're going to lack height in the centre of defence, but often the little man can beat the big man, that's the beauty of football. We're only worried about ourselves; about getting ourselves in the best shape that we can and we're highly motivated to take this game in a positive frame of mind, which is what we'll do.

"Preparation for this game will be the same as for any other match - we'll be here later on looking at video evidence of Derby's last few performances, what we consider their strengths and what we consider their weaknesses. Hopefully the information which we show the players will help them when they go into the game tomorrow to win the match.

"We consider every game a must-win, we don't go into any game thinking it's not. That would be a bad attitude to have and every game is hugely important - this is the next game so it always becomes the most important, as the next game after that will become."

On Jonathan Grounds, Roeder confirmed the young player could return to Norwich if Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate's own defensive selection options improve again: "He proved in the short time he was here what a good player he was - he was a Premiership defender. He can come back before the end of his original loan and Gareth has said he would have no problem bringing him back.

"His feedback from the player himself and his scouts was very positive towards Norwich."

Asked by reporters whether he was looking to bring in any more defenders on loan, the City boss replied this wasn't something that was on the cards. He said: "I think John Kennedy will be fit for the Bristol game and Dejan will only have one more game to sit out, and Doc will be getting closer to full fitness so I don't think so. I think that a couple of players deserve an opportunity tomorrow which they'll get."

Looking ahead to tomorrow's game at Carrow Road, Roeder was positive that recently injured players Sammy Clingan and Matthew Pattison were on the road to recovery. He commented: "Sammy has a good chance of being fit, he looks like he's recovered quicker than we thought he would. We'll assess him in training today but he has got a good chance of being involved tomorrow.

"Pattison isn't quite 100 per cent fit and now we've got an opportunity with the two-week break of getting him 100 per-cent fit for Bristol."

Reflecting on the Canaries' game earlier this week at Southampton, the manager said he had been impressed by the efforts of Portsmouth loan-signing OJ Koroma, who featured in the starting line-up at St Mary's stadium. "He's missed a couple of golden opportunities but with young players, nothing tends to worry them too much," added Roeder. "He knows that once we got through the first ten minutes where it was all pretty new for him, he did very well after that, especially when we changed our shape to match them up.

"We pushed him out more to the left with Crofty high on the right. Apart from those chances to score, his performance was excellent overall and it's good to know that we can use him when we want to. The more you use him, the better he'll get - he's certainly a little bit different and not many people know much about him at the moment so hopefully when we do use him he can catch defenders unaware."

Match Odds - Norwich 5/4 - Draw 9/4 - Derby 11/5

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