Feel-good City ready for Canaries

The Robins were defeated 1-0 in Sunday’s Emirates FA Cup tie against Wolves, despite a strong second-half showing, and now their attentions return to the Sky Bet Championship.

City have just 15 league games remaining - that’s a third of the campaign - starting with Saturday’s trip to Carrow Road, with the Canaries occupying top spot in the league.

Assistant Head Coach Jamie McAllister said: “Morale has been good but obviously we’re disappointed to lose the game against Wolves, but morale is good.

‘We felt we weren’t at our best in the first half but the second half was outstanding and we put a very good Premier League team under pressure for 45 minutes. It was more like us; on the front foot, we created a lot of chances and we were unlucky not to get something from the game.”

City have lost just once in their 16 matches in all competitions and chasing their eighth consecutive win in the Championship this weekend, against a side with the division’s top goalscorer.

However, McAllister is confident City, who have the Championship’s second-best defence this season, have the tools to tame Norwich frontman Teemu Pukki

“We take confidence into Saturday, definitely,” McAllister said. “Norwich are a very good side, on a good run as well and that makes for a good game. Both teams are scoring games, are hard to beat and it’s a top of the table clash.

“We’re focused on getting those consecutive wins in the league. The next three points up for grabs are of course at Norwich but we’re confident and looking forward to a great game.

“They’re on a great run, flying at the top. They score a lot of goals but we know they concede too, soft goals at times. We’re aware Pukki is a threat, he plays off the last man and his movement is good. He’s a proper goalscorer but we can cause them problems, create chances ourselves and hopefully lock up the back and keep a clean sheet.”

He added: “We need to keep doing the basics well, be hard to beat, organised and play with our style of high pressing, quick tempo and cause them problems.”

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