CHRIS LAKEY Dion Dublin says over-reliance on Robert Earnshaw to get goals for Norwich City is a mistake.Earnshaw was missing on Saturday with a knee injury and in his absence, City lacked a cutting edge up front.

CHRIS LAKEY

Dion Dublin says over-reliance on Robert Earnshaw to get goals for Norwich City is a mistake.

Earnshaw was missing on Saturday with a knee injury and in his absence, City lacked a cutting edge up front.

It wasn't until they threw Dublin and Jason Shackell up front to try and haul back a 2-0 deficit, that Wednesday were under any sustained threat.

The reward was a Dublin header that made it 2-1, but there was agony when a penalty award suddenly became a free-kick against City because of offside.

But Dublin - still on defensive duties in the absence of the injured Gary Doherty - says City cannot rely on the 13-goal Welsh ace for their points.

“We know Earnie is the best goalscorer in our team, and possibly the best in the league, but if you go into a game thinking Robert Earnshaw is going to win it for you every week you are sadly mistaken,” he said. “It is not going to happen. He has done it for us and he has scored goals and will continue to do so, but relying on Earnie is the worst thing we can do.”

Dublin picked up the man of the match champagne, and player of the month honours, but admitted he was a frustrated man.

“I didn't think we deserved to lose the game, but I don't think we did enough to win it,” he said. “The draw would have been great, but it was smash and grab for Sheffield Wednesday, and they're up the road with the points.

“I thought we let them have too much possession - as a centre half today we possibly were too deep as well as a back four, which gave them more space to play, gave their forwards time to come off myself and Shacks in order to play. It wasn't just one section, it was a team performance which wasn't good enough and if your team performance isn't good enough you don't deserve to win the game.

“You look at the team sheets we have one of the best teams in the league, but you can only do as much as you can on the training pitch. We are working on things, the manager is always working on things that haven't gone well, the manager is always trying to get us to improve, doing the right things. We are trying to cover the right things and at the moment it is just not going for us.”

The major dramas were left for the final 10 minutes, when, with four up front, City pummelled the Wednesday defence. It was thrilling to watch, but ultimately disappointing - with salt rubbed in the wound when a penalty to City quickly became a free kick to Wednesday.

“We had a penalty which was given and then not given because the assistant gave another decision,” said Dublin. “I agree that it's hard and I agree that he has to listen to his assistants, but when you have got something and it is taken away from you it is frustrating.

“The only reason the last 10 minutes went our way is because I'm up front, Shacks is up front, Peter Thorne is up front. We had four forwards and we were just launching it up front. We don't want to play football that way, we want to pass it about, that's what Norwich have done for years.

“Just launching it up front isn't going to work, not in this league, because they will just put four defenders on you and match you like for like. The manager wants us to play and if needs be he will do what he has to do to get us a goal.”