CHRIS LAKEY Darren Huckerby has warned the Canaries against over-reliance on results at Fortress Carrow Road. City have won nine of their last 10 home games, including the first three of this season.

CHRIS LAKEY

Darren Huckerby has warned the Canaries against over-reliance on results at Fortress Carrow Road.

City have won nine of their last 10 home games, including the first three of this season.

But it's on the road where points are being dropped - deservedly or not - with four trips this season yielding two draws and two defeats, and Huckerby knows that has to change if City are to be serious promotion contenders.

"We have to get this away games thing off our backs, there is no doubt about that," he said. "In my opinion we should have won the games against Leeds and Derby, we were the better team in both games and we didn't come away with the points we deserved.

"You could even say that about Southend - 3-1 up that's a definite. We should have won those three but we haven't and we have to put that right, we can't keep relying on winning games at home because sometimes teams are going to come here and we are not going to get the win. So we have to start picking up points away from home. Everybody at the club knows that - it is alright knowing that, we have to put it right.

"We had a few injuries here and there for the Coventry game and people were ill, but even so we have to deal with people pumping the ball long into our box, we definitely have to deal with that better than we have done. I think it was the same with Southend, from the bits of the game I have seen. When we passed the ball we passed them off the pitch, but we seemed to get stuck by people just lumping the ball into our box, we don't seem to deal with it as well as we should.

"It's been as blip, a bad week for us, but we have a home game and we can definitely bounce back from that."

Norwich's cause hasn't been helped by Huckerby's absence with a lingering groin injury which finally took its toll at Coventry last week.

"The specialist told me it would be two weeks' rest and after that we can start kicking on," he said. "I think I should be back for the Burnley game. If not there is a two-week break after that and it will definitely be after that."

That means Huckerby will miss at least three games, possibly four - an unusually long spell out for a player who has rarely missed a game for City, despite the fact that the pacey wide role brings with it a high risk of injury.

"I have been very lucky over my career, and especially my time at Norwich," he said. "I think I have only missed five or six matches in the whole three seasons, so I am disappointed, but there is nothing I can do about it.

"I've have been very lucky I haven't had to spectate much. I don't know why - I suppose I don't really tackle that much, but obviously I get tackled a lot so I have been very lucky.

"I usually do manage to get through games, even if I have slight knocks and little injuries here and there. I tried my best to get through the Coventry game, but it was quite clear to me I was struggling early on. It is just one of those things - nobody wants to miss games."

Having listened to the Southend game on radio, Huckerby will be closer to the action today.

"I'll be there on Saturday cheering the lads on," he said. "We've been very, very strong at home and we've got very good players and hopefully the front three can cause a lot of damage again.

"No disrespect to Southend, but we have got to be beating teams like that if we expect to go up this season, so hopefully we can put it right on Saturday. It is going to be a tough game but we have been playing well at home and I don't see why we can't continue that."