On a sorry afternoon for Norwich City, Cameron Jerome could be forgiven for at least saving a little smile for himself.

Eastern Daily Press: Cameron Jerome goes down in the area but there's no penalty for City. Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus ImagesCameron Jerome goes down in the area but there's no penalty for City. Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images (Image: �Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +447814 482222)

The striker's header was supposed to fire a second-half comeback – but proved nothing more than a Canaries consolation.

However, Jerome's 16th goal of the Championship campaign means only five strikers have been more prolific than City's number 10 this term.

'That's all you do as a striker – you go out there and try to help the team as much as you can,' said Jerome. 'The manager will give you instructions of how he wants you to play and you try to execute that as much as possible.

'As a striker you want to score goals in every game and that's not always going to happen. But if you can chip in and help with goals and working hard, bringing people into play and doing what the manager is asking of you, then you are doing your job.

'From a personal point of view it's nice to score goals – but it's not nice when the team loses, so I'd have taken us getting something out of the game and not scoring.'

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Without being able to take too much consolation from his goal, Jerome was left as frustrated as everyone else with City's 16th defeat of the campaign as 10-man Fulham left Carrow Road the victors – not for the first time in recent history. The fact it came so quickly after that 7-1 humiliation of play-off rivals Reading underlined the kind of campaign it's been for Norwich City.

'It's been the story of our season, one step forward and two back – we give ourselves a little bit of hope and then in the same breath, we snatch it away the following week,' said Jerome.

'I thought Fulham thoroughly deserved their win and I thought we were second best, so no complaints for our part.

'I thought we were going to get back into the game. It was not capitalising on the pressure we built up and that momentum. When they put four or five at the back, we struggled to break it down and fair credit to them. They had their backs to the walls and did their job, they stood up. We lacked a bit of quality.'

And while some City supporters may have left Carrow Road frustrated at some of Fulham's antics as they tried to wind down the clock from soon after their fifth-minute lead, Jerome wasn't having any of it.

He added: 'It's part of the game. We'd have done exactly the same thing in their position so that's football. You just get on with it. There's nothing you can do.'

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