Norwich City’s dramatic stoppage time 2-1 Premier League defeat at Leeds on Sunday was not how Dean Smith wanted to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.

Smith admitted he would have to pick himself up first before lifting his dejected players after an epic end to a relegation clash at Elland Road.

Kenny McLean appeared to have salvaged a point, in the first of six additional minutes, but Joe Gelhardt rifled home Raphinha’s cutback to shove the rock-bottom Canaries closer to a top flight exit and effectively six points from safety with just nine games left.

Norwich now face a lengthy break before their resume their Premier League quest at Brighton on April 2.

“I am not one to feel sorry for myself. That is not how I work. We have a tough three weeks without a game,” said Smith. “Maybe for the next three to four days we can work on what we want to look like when we play next in April.

"Then we will lose maybe 14 players to international duty. It is going to be sore, because we put so much into that and we come away with nothing.

"First of all, I have to go and pick myself up. I have to put a brave face on it as it was my daughter’s birthday and I am planning to meet her for a bite to eat.

"Then I will lift the players. We knew the magnitude of the game and against a team just above us in the league. We knew we had to come and get points.”

Smith felt City handed Leeds the initiative in a sluggish first half.

“They were the better team, we were the better team second half,” he said. “We did the same against Chelsea. We can’t string two halves of consistent football together, in terms of the performance. That is disappointing. We are where we are in this table because of the work in both boxes.

"Even the opportunities we had in the first half our quality wasn’t quite right in terms of the finish or the final pass. Plus the mistakes we contributed to their chances.

“Those were big moments in stoppage time, but we had to take risks. At half-time we looked like we lacked a little bit of energy so we had to make a change.

“The first goal we concede is disappointing for me. Patrick Bamford is the intended recipient of that ball and he is offside. Unfortunately the law deems him onside, because he doesn’t make an attempt to get the ball. Ozan (Kabak) could let the ball run but he is not going to risk it in that situation.

"But then their players run past mine for the knockdown - that kind of summed up the first half for me.”