Mark Robins insisted his Barnsley team made it 'easy' for Norwich on a disappointing afternoon for the one-time Canaries striker.

Aside from a lacklustre performance, Barnsley lost two defenders – right-back Bobby Hassell with a calf problem and former Canaries centre-half Jason Shackell after a clash of heads with Henri Lansbury – in the first half.

Barnsley's day of woe came just four days after they had gone to Leeds and taken a point in a 3-3 draw.

'It's chalk and cheese,' said Robins. 'You can't even compare the two.

'I've got to take it on the chin and forget about it as quickly as possible and learn from it as quickly as possible and get ready for next week.

'It was quite simply a case of we didn't perform and we didn't do any of the things we know we can do.

'We made it an easy afternoon for Norwich because we weren't helping ourselves. We didn't work hard enough up front and we didn't play the conditions as well as they did. I think the ball was in the air a fair amount, it was a difficult surface, but, look, it's one of those bad days at the office and we are going to have to move past it and get on with things.'

The way bodies dropped like flies was out of anyone's hands.

'You look at Jason Shackell being off the pitch for the second goal,' Robins said. 'It was a great goal, a great strike. The first one was a run that hadn't been tracked – decent ball into the penalty area. That was the thing –we lost Bobby, we lost (Nathan) Doyle, we lost (Jacob) Mellis before the game, so there were four lads missing from the performance, but that's not any excuse because we didn't start the afternoon off brightly enough.

'It didn't affect the flow and the momentum because we didn't have any at that stage. It is one of those, we have got to get past it and I don't want to dwell on that too much.

'The positive I can take from it is we didn't fold in the second half, where we drew 0-0. In the first half obviously we conceded two goals that were from our point of view poor, but I have plenty to work on for next week and try to be positive.

'Jason Shackell will be devastated because his two front teeth have gone – we are out on the pitch looking for them to see if we can put them back in.'

Robins put on striker Marlon Harewood for Hassell early on, although the striker only signed a loan deal from Blackpool on the morning of the game: 'The signing was great news – and that's where the great news ended today,' admitted Robins. 'It's symptomatic of our season. After a great performance on Tuesday today has been a kick in the teeth in more ways than one.'