Norwich City head coach Dean Smith felt it was an improved performance against Leicester City on Wednesday night.
The team lost the match 3-0, with second half goals coming from Jamie Vardy (2) and former Norwich City player James Maddison.
However, the Canaries, after a nervous start, had their chances in the first half through youngster Tony Springett and Teemu Pukki and it was a fortunate deflected goal from Leicester that forced Smith’s side into a change of tact and gave the result to the Foxes.
“I thought it was a better performance but a similar scoreline,” said Dean. “We are a team that has been recruited to play possession-based football, but unfortunately at this level we are coming up against teams who are going to be better than us with possession at times.
“While we have got something to hold onto, we are alright. I thought first half we were good because we had something to hold onto and we grew into the first half, had some good possession and some good chances as well.
“They (Leicester) upped the tempo of the game second half and once the first goal goes in it mashes with our brains a little bit and we suffer then. It becomes hard because we have to try and chase a game and we are not good at that because we are a better team with the ball, than without the ball.”
Angus Gunn, who replaced Tim Krul in goal for the match, made some good saves first half but he could do nothing about the opener which saw Vardy hit a shot that deflected off Hanley and looped over him into the net.
“I decided to rest Tim (Krul) today and I put in Angus and he made some really good saves in the first half,” said Dean. “He didn’t have much of a chance with the goals. The first one deflects over him as well.”
“There was no need for us to concede that first goal,” added Dean, who felt that it was a turning point in the match. “Milot has got to make a better decision. He puts a cross into an area where there is nobody when we could have just kept hold of the ball. There is still a long way to go for them to go and score but then we just made poor decisions on top of that. That coupled with the movement of Vardy, Maddison and Barnes causes you problems.”
There was another bright note in a full Premier League debut for winger Tony Springett.
“I thought he did really well first half,” said Dean. “I thought up until the goal I thought he was really good, but it is hard for a young player who has come into the team when we go a goal down and we start chasing the match because we are a team that is low on confidence, having got relegated. I thought it was the right time at the moment to bring him off to prevent further suffering for him as well.”