Alex Neil gears up for Norwich City’s Premier League survival push with home comforts

Norwich City boss Alex Neil has put his faith in home comforts to prepare for the most important spell of his young management career.

The ex-Hamilton gaffer returned north of the border during City's recent fortnight's break from Premier League action to gear up for the final onslaught.

'I just went back up to Scotland to get myself ready and re-freshened for these next two weeks, which are going to be intense,' he said.

'I popped over to Hamilton and had a chat with the boys as well. I let the players have a couple of days off last weekend to do the same type of thing but the preparation during the week has been no different. This scenario is not that much different to what I have been used to in my career so far. It is either challenging at the top or fighting at the bottom. We have a job to do and we need to do it.'

Neil tried to avoid the temptation of watching relegation rivals Sunderland and Newcastle with Norwich not playing.

'There is nothing worse, it is like torture, willing the other team to score,' he said. 'I have not watched many of the games to be honest. I am just focused on us. We have got work to do.

'We just need to pick up more points than them in these final four games, Newcastle have played a game more and are a point behind us. The simple fact is we needed to win games to stay in the league, that remains the case, we have just made it a bit tougher for us.

'I think what happens is when you lose a big game, like we did against Sunderland when at that stage we were four points above them, everything was looking rosy.

'What happened since then is they beat us and then pick up another point (against Arsenal) which means we are behind them on goal difference, which is nothing to be honest. You can talk about the points we need. If anyone does better than 38 they deserve to stay up. If you offered me that I would take it.'