Neil: Norwich shot themselves in foot with mistakes

Rob Conlon
John Ruddy: Goalkeeper's mistake lead to Man City's winner

John Ruddy: Goalkeeper's mistake lead to Man City's winner

Alex Neil says Norwich were the masters of their own downfall in their narrow defeat at league leaders Manchester City.

The Canaries looked to have snatched a point at the Etihad when Cameron Jerome capitalised on a Joe Hart error, but a mistake by John Ruddy resulted in Russell Martin being sent off for conceding a penalty, which Yaya Toure converted to give City a 2-1 victory.

Earlier Nicholas Otamendi had given the hosts the lead with a header from a corner.

“I thought we limited Man City to very little but if you’re going to lose a goal away to the top teams, you want it to be from a bit of quality, so to lose one to a set-piece is disappointing,” Neil said.

“Then we made mistakes at the back for the second goal and it cost us the game. It is just disappointing. He [Ruddy] knows he has made an error.

“But it won’t take us long to get over it. We will analyse it, we will get through it. There is a lot of positive stuff.

“It is the first time I have played three at the back, with two wing-backs dropping in to make five. I think it worked really really well. Manchester City struggled to break us down.”