CITY Assistant Manager Ian Butterworth blamed missed chances and a couple of moments of sloppy defending for the Canaries' 2-1 defeat away to promoted side Brentford.
With newly-appointed manager Paul Lambert watching from the stands at Griffin Park, City matched their hosts in an entertaining first half which saw good chances spurned by both sides.
But Brentford emerged the stronger side after the break and the Norwich defence was undone by a fairly basic opening goal, David Hunt's long throw from the right met by a glancing header from Ryan Dickson 10 yards out.
In the 71st minute City midfielder Matt Gill handled on the edge of the area as he tried to block a shot and Hunt punished the Canaries with a piledriver of a free-kick which flew through the wall and past Alnwick to make it 2-0.
The introduction of substitute striker Chris Martin into the fray gave the Canaries much more bite late in the game and they rallied to give the Bees some nervous moments - but in the end a free-kick from Owain Tudur Jones in injury time was their solitary contribution to the scoreline.
There was time in the last action of the match for Doherty to fail by inches to connect with a header in the six-yard box which surely would have levelled the match for Norwich, but it wasn't to be.
Butterworth told First News after the game: "We've done very well first half, we've defended very well and possibly on reflection should have been two goals up. But you've got to take your chances at this level. I think there's some stats that say if you score the first goal then 70 per cent or so of the time you go on to win the game, so it's disappointing we haven't taken any of a couple of good chances we had to get our noses in front.
"In the second half probably the smallest player on the pitch scored their first goal in Ryan Dickson and that was disappointing as we'd done a lot of work on picking up in training. And the free-kick went through the wall, I think one of the lads twisted at the last minute and it's gone through, so that's disappointing as well.
"But to be fair there was commitment and character shown by the lads right to the end with Owain nicking a goal back and then right at the death there a half-chance for Gary Doherty to nick the draw. We just need a little bit of luck to get us there but at the moment we can't keep it going for 90 minutes and that's got to improve. We have to be more ruthless."
Asked how he felt about being asked to take the team with new first team boss Paul Lambert looking on, Butterworth said: "It's part of football isn't it? I have been asked to do my job and prepare the team and that is what I have done. We have the day off tomorrow and then we're meeting the manager on Thursday so obviously we'll take it from there."
