ALEX Neil says basic errors cost his team in their 2-1 defeat to Burton Albion on Saturday.

Cauley Woodrow put Burton ahead in the first half but City looked in good shape after Cameron Jerome's fortuitous equaliser.

The hosts quickly retook the lead through Michael Kightly, however, and held on to condemn the Canaries to their first Sky Bet Championship defeat in over a month.

Neil told reporters afterwards: "We gave the ball away for the first goal and did the same again for the second goal. It was really frustrating all round.

"We started the game quite lively and got into good areas at times, but we concede a goal from a ball being knocked into a channel.

"I made a change at half-time and we got a goal, and I thought at that stage the players looked good and as if they'd go on and win it.

"But we had a throw-in which we gave away into a dangerous area, and they broke and we couldn't deal with one forward.

"We let ourselves down today. For how many good performances we've had of late, I thought we had some really poor performances today."

Neil refused to rule out a play-off push for his side, even though they fell seven points behind the top six after the defeat at the Pirelli Stadium and Sheffield Wednesday's victory over Nottingham Forest.

He added: "It depends on the next game. If we win it and they lose, then it's back down to four and it's realistic again.

"But we can't afford any more of them. We were basically the makers of our own downfall.

"The frustrating thing is the lads, over the last seven games, have done really well but today we didn't."

ALEX NEIL: MAKERS OF OUR OWN DOWNFALL

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