CITY captain Mark Fotheringham says the Norwich squad must be courageous as they look ahead to the last 13 games of the season.

Despite feeling his side put on a strong show at Deepdale, the Norwich skipper told First News of his disappointment after the Canaries were left empty-handed when the final whistle blew on Saturday.

"We're bitterly disappointed," he said. "Because we believe we should have taken at least a point out of that game, and I think everyone's sure it was a good team performance but Preston came away with the three points.

"I think the main factor at the moment is we're killing ourselves in both the penalty boxes and we need to focus on being a little more solid in those areas and finishing teams off in their penalty box. It's the same story every time - we're performing against these teams but we're just not getting the results. We're in a fight now and we're going to have to see some brave characters next week at home."

Fotheringham continued: "We can't worry about what other teams are doing, we just need to think about ourselves. We just need a little bit of luck to go our way and I always believe if you work hard in your life you get the rub of the green and the lads here are definitely working hard enough.

"It's just disappointing we didn't take the win against Preston because we played well against a really good side, who are well organised and who move the ball about well."

Asked what it would take for Norwich to move away from a relegation battle, the Captain added: "It takes brave men, men who are prepared to go out and fight for their jersey. It's no secret that this is a great club which deserves to be in the Championship, and it deserves to be pushing for the Premier League.

"It's unfortunate we're in the situation we are in, we've had a very up and down season but we need to continue working hard for one another and be brave. We need to show confidence in one another and keep believing we're going to get out of the position we're in and just take each game as it comes, concentrating on getting a few wins."

As Bryan Gunn's side get set to take on Burnley at Carrow Road this Saturday, Fotheringham told canaries.co.uk he believed his side had the ability to climb away from their current 20th position in the Championship table and were ready for a tough challenge: "We've got players here who are experienced lads who've been in this situation before so hopefully we're strong enough mentally to come out of this. There is still a lot of football to be played, 13 games, so we just need to concentrate on each match as it comes.

"Burnley will be a tough test, Coventry will be a challenge as well, but it's two home games and we believe we can beat anyone at home. Although we lost at Preston, you can see that there's not any players with low confidence and everyone's knocking the ball around well. We're trying to be as positive as we can, we just need a little bit luck - we'll look at it this week and we need to rectify any mistakes as soon as we can."