Huddersfield boss Chris Powell insisted Murray Wallace's early red-card should not excuse the Terriers' dire second-half display at Carrow Road.

Powell admitted he was powerless to prevent Norwich sweeping his side away in a five-goal blitz triggered by a burst of three goals in five minutes straight after the interval.

'If you start any game like we did in the second-half, you won't get anything at any level. We didn't give ourselves a chance,' he said. 'After conceding the first you want to bounce back, but to then concede another two in the next five minutes – with 10 men – made for a long afternoon. We didn't get going and we paid the price. We allowed them to do exactly what they wanted, which can't happen and I've told the players that afterwards. Norwich's players were allowed to pass with ease and run off us.

We didn't stop crosses and you will pay for that at any level, but particularly against a side that has some players of Premier League calibre. We tried to settle them down and then get into a shape that would help us, but sadly it didn't.'

Powell did not excuse himself from blame after sacrificing his impressive frontman Nahki Wells at the break in a bid to bolster Town's defence after the exit of Wallace for felling Cameron Jerome.

'It was the correct decision. You don't want it to be a red card when it happens, but looking back we know that we didn't deal with the first bouncing ball,' he said. 'Murray was on the cover and didn't make it; he was the last man, so it's quite a straightforward decision for the referee. That left Nahki sharing a job out of position with Grant (Holt) on the left and we knew they would have more ball possession and really attack us. We rode our luck once or twice, but we needed to get in at half-time to re-organise.

'I wanted a balance and we'd second-guessed that Nathan Redmond would come on so we knew with Nahki playing out of position we felt we had to relieve that pressure somewhat. It didn't work. Sometimes you gamble and they come off for you and sometimes they don't. Even though we put an extra man in defence it didn't happen for us.'