ALAN Irvine felt his Norwich City side were unlucky to suffer defeat as they slipped to a 2-0 loss at Aston Villa.

The Canaries had possession and chances at Villa Park but Jonathan Kodjia's goals in each half meant the three points went the way of the hosts.

City had Ivo Pinto sent off for a second bookable offence shortly before Villa's decisive second, but Irvine was content with his side's performance despite the end result.

"We certainly played well during the game," he told Norwich City TV post-match. "Even with ten men, we had a great chance through Nelson (Oliveira) at 1-0.

"We got done on the counter-attack for the first goal; it was a good break by them, that was the way they played for a lot of the game.

"They were a threat - there's no question about that. It was our mistake for the second goal.

"I didn't think we looked too vulnerable for most of the game and we certainly had good enough chances to get a result.

"It can change again in midweek. We need to make sure that we don't dwell too much on the defeat and try to make sure we can get three points at Huddersfield."

Irvine's plans were also disrupted when Graham Dorrans, returning for his first start since Boxing Day, was forced off with an ankle injury at the break.

City's Interim Head Coach added: "Nobody's making this easy for me! That's part of the job though and what we have to do is find the best solution to the problems.

"Graham's tweaked his ankle. We don't know the extent of the injury or anything like that, but obviously it's really disappointing.

"I was fearing that it was going to effect our performance in the second half but it didn't. I thought Steven Naismith would give us that break from midfield and he did.

"It's a big blow for Graham but hopefully it's nothing serious."

ALAN IRVINE: WE WERE UNLUCKY TO LOSE

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