Head coach Dean Smith admitted that a draw with Crystal Palace was a fair result.
Norwich City drew 1-1 with Patrick Vieira’s side after taking a 1-0 lead inside the opening minute through Teemu Pukki. The Canaries looked the better side in the first half and had chances to extend the lead but then Palace worked a way back into the match before equalising through Wilfried Zaha.
“It is fair (the result),” said Dean. “I was really pleased with the first half and the start that we made. It was a good goal from Teemu (Pukki) and Teemu will feel that he probably could have scored another one as well, he had a couple of chances, and I was pleased with the first half performance in general.
“I thought the last 10 to 15 minutes Crystal Palace found the solution to overloading us in midfield and it became a little bit harder and we had less of the ball. I was disappointed with what we did with the ball. The second half they were the better team and deserved it.”
Dean was full of praise for the way his side defended the box second half and says the team is getting better at controlling the game without the ball.
“The one thing I will say about the players – as disappointed as I am that we haven’t gone on from the lead that we had – was that we defended our box really well,” he said.
“With the exception of the penalty, I don’t think too many of their attempts were from within, what I would call the goal zone, and even their goal it is a super finish into the top corner. But, again, we have got a two v one in that area and we shouldn’t have let him come on to his favoured side. We had spoken about that. There are many things that pleased me, but there are some things that are those little margins that we need to get better at.
“It is a part of the game we are getting so much better at, controlling the game without the ball and make them go where we want them to. I felt they solved a few problems at the end of the first half and then into the second half caused us more problems. We are a team that has brought players in who are comfortable on the football and I just didn’t think our movement was good enough when we had the ball. That is something we can certainly get better at.”