Liam Manning felt Norwich ‘weren’t brave enough’ in defeat to Bristol City

Norwich head coach Liam Manning admitted his side are “too nice” after watching Bristol City win 1-0 to become the latest side to leave Carrow Road with all three points.

The Canaries are hovering just above the Championship relegation zone after losing all five of their home league games, with another reverse coming in the Carabao Cup.

After a painful defeat against his former club, for whom Mark Sykes netted the winner, Manning said: “I seem to be repeating myself after every match here, we are just too nice to play against.

“I’ll own my performance in all this but a few of the players need to own their performances as well.

“They need to show the necessary toughness to go out there and win a game of football in a tough atmosphere like it was today.

“We created some good chances and didn’t take them – successful sides at this level need to be ruthless in front of goal and we weren’t.

“I don’t want us to play square and sideways all the time, I want us to attack with purpose.

“Overall we were just too passive – we weren’t brave enough to go out and do what was required. When you don’t score the pressure mounts.

“Then (for the goal) we give away a soft free-kick, switch off when it comes over and the ball is in the back of our net.”

An evenly-contested clash of few clear-cut chances was settled in the 73rd minute by a well-taken goal from Sykes.

The Robins substitute, who had only been on the pitch five minutes, was lurking at the back post when Anis Mehmeti crossed from the left and when the ball fell at his feet he produced a excellent finish.

After a dire first half, Radek Vitek produced a superb reflex stop to prevent Emi Marcondes from firing Norwich in front while the on-loan keeper later did well to foil Jack Stacey at point-blank range.

Gerhard Struber, Manning’s successor at Bristol City, was delighted to see his side get back to winning ways after the previous four games had yielded just two points.

He said: “Everyone was really disappointed after our last game against QPR and determined to bounce back.

“We had a plan coming here and it was a really good effort from the boys.

“The batteries were certainly low at the end after all the effort they put in.

“We worked very hard to keep Norwich out and were always dangerous on transition and could have had a few more goals.

“On a couple of occasions we were grateful to Radek but overall I thought we deserved to win this game. ”

As for the performance of Vitek, who is on loan from Manchester United, Struber added: “He has made a couple of excellent saves.

“He’s only 21 but already looks like an excellent Championship keeper and is someone who has high potential.”