CHRIS LAKEY Dickson Etuhu admitted he made the wrong decision in starting Saturday's game at Coventry. The Canaries' powerhouse midfielder had been suffering with illness before the game, but believed he would see it though.

CHRIS LAKEY

Dickson Etuhu admitted he made the wrong decision in starting Saturday's game at Coventry.

The Canaries' powerhouse midfielder, who has been such a revelation this season, had been suffering with illness before the game, but believed he would see it though.

However, the 24-year-old was a shadow of his usual self and, with just 65 minutes on the clock, was taken off.

There was clearly something wrong and Etuhu admitted afterwards that his desire to keep what had been a well-oiled City machine running smoothly had got he better of him.

“I realised I wouldn't last but I just kept trying, doing it for the team,” he said. “I didn't want to mess up the team because we had been doing so well. Maybe I should have put my hands up and left earlier.

“I did the wrong thing - next time I won't play.”

Etuhu said he had been feeling below par for three days before the game, although he refused to use it as an excuse.

“I felt very weak, no energy - but that's not an excuse,” he said.

“I thought that we started off a bit slow, they played the long ball and we were unlucky. But what is done is done and forgotten about now, we have to move on.

“I don't think they were better than us, I thought they didn't even play football, but it's gone, now. I am not very happy at the moment but we should forget about it.

“We are a better team than them and it got to a 15-minute period when we were getting back into it and they scored again and that kind of killed the game off.”