Alex Neil knows Norwich City is a big job – but it is not mission impossible.

The Canaries head to Birmingham on Saturday looking to keep in touch with the Championship pacesetters after the first defeat of his tenure against promotion rivals Brentford.

Highly-rated Neil arrived with a big reputation after his successful stint at Hamilton, underlined by a 53% win percentage, in guiding the Accies to the fringes of European qualification.

Paul Lambert is the only Norwich manager of recent vintage to get anywhere near a similar win ratio during his Carrow Road spell, but Neil is happy to embrace the size of the task.

'I knew it was a big job. There was no way I was coming down to a club sitting seventh in the Championship and there weren't issues to be addressed,' he said. 'Certainly after the first two games I was thinking, 'Maybe I have found myself a wee bit lucky,' but after Brentford there is a lot more work to be done than what I initially thought.

'I think it is the expectation level of the fans and the players - all I have heard since coming down is how good a squad we are and this and that, which can have a negative effect. You can get into a situation where you think you should be winning games comfortably but none of these games are easy. They are going to be tough, and we have to at our best by putting in good, confident performances without making errors. That is how we get rid of any fear factor.'

Neil's former Hamilton assistant, Frankie McAvoy, will officially join Norwich's backroom team after this weekend's league game.

'No, he won't be at Birmingham,' said Neil. 'I didn't think it would be right to introduce him to the squad or take any of their focus off the game. Frankie will come down once the match is done.'