AUDIO: A year to the day they slumped to a heartbreaking late defeat at Leeds United in League One, Norwich City dished up the same scoreline for Crystal Palace.

But Tuesday night was a far cry from the League One sympathy on offer at Elland Road after Fraser Forster's ill-fated goal-kick that headed straight for Jermaine Beckford to hit his injury-time winner in front of the Sky cameras.

Instead, a stuttering performance from third-placed City against a visiting Palace side 20 places below them in the Championship table before the game brought plenty of boos from a dissatisfied Carrow Road support, as the Eagles came back from Grant Holt's first-half effort.

The defeat was a hard one for Norwich to take, given such a promising performance in the goalless draw at leaders Queens Park Rangers on Saturday. But the Canaries remain fifth and clearly capable of dealing with life back in the second tier, at the very least.

And City captain Holt believes a rise of 25 places up the English football ladder in the space of 12 months is worth remembering from the fall-out of a rare City off-day.

'It has been a fantastic year,' said Holt. 'We worked hard last year and we worked hard to get into this division, and now we're here we're working even harder to try and get up and stay up as high as we can.

'We performed brilliantly in the last 10 or 11 games, we've been solid and worked hard and I'm sure the fans are enjoying it.

'We want it to continue and we want to keep to striving to stay up there. We're disappointed with the Palace result but we will bounce back at the weekend.'

That chance to bounce back is Saturday's visit of pre-season title favourites Middlesbrough – now managerless following Gordon Strachan's resignation after a disastrous start to the campaign.

City still have their proud record of not losing two league games in succession since their Championship relegation in 2009 to protect, while getting back on song quickly will be top priority after Tuesday night's misfire.

Holt understood the fans' reaction at the final whistle in midweek – a symptom of City's impressive 12-month rise.

'That's all down to us; we've set a precedent now of how we are and how we play, but whoever has gone away from here today, they will still have seen a team that never gives up,' said Holt. 'You can see even against Palace how we're still striving and trying to get a goal, and that shows what the manager has instilled in the last year or so.'

Holt was the oldest City player on the pitch on Tuesday and the Canaries skipper admitted their inexperience is worth considering.

'We're a team that is still young to this division, still new,' said Holt. 'We're a little bit inexperienced, I was the oldest player on the pitch today for Norwich I think, at 29 – only young – but we're learning.

'We've got some young boys, it's a tough division and I'm actually delighted – and everyone is delighted in there – with where we are at the moment and we want it to continue and we want to stay in and around those places.

'We came out in the second half (against Palace) and started off a little bit sluggish, started to get a foot-hold back in the game and then the goals kill us a little bit.

'We've got to learn; we will learn from that. It's hard enough in this league stopping teams scoring without giving goals away as well.

'You're learning all the time, week in week out. We had a tough test last week and defended against QPR brilliantly and today we gave cheap goals away. As soon as the second goal went in they just stuck 10 behind the ball and that was them really, they just shut up shop and were difficult to break down, they worked hard.'