Alex Neil is determined to salvage Norwich City's Championship season after 10-man City slumped to an eighth league defeat in the last 10 at Reading on Boxing Day.

Neil revealed he had already spoken to the club's top brass after the final whistle at the Madejski and the message is to come back swinging at Brentford on New Years' Eve.

'The questions about my future is part and parcel of the game. I have said before that is for others to answer,' he said. 'My focus is now on the next game. I have seen the owners in the foyer after the game. They are obviously as frustrated and p***** off as I am, but at the end of the day all I can do is prepare a team and if people are not doing their roles then it becomes difficult.

'The owners and the people on the board have never mentioned anything to me about my role. It is about keeping our head up and keeping going. That is the message.

'There is no question the players gave everything they had. We had 10 men and we were trying to create things. There was no sense of the players giving up or all that nonsense that goes with the end of a tenure at any club. The effort was there for all to see.

'The fight will never leave me. I have been a competitor since the first day I started playing football. That will never change. If you get some kicks in the gut then for me you come back and roll your sleeves up and come back fighting harder. I hope the rest are the same. At times as a manager, you're the best thing since sliced bread. At other times, you're the pantomime villain. That's the simple fact of the matter.'