Neil Adams insists the madness of the Championship is working in Norwich City's favour.

The Canaries remain four points adrift of leaders Bournemouth and Middlesbrough, despite a 4-0 midweek defeat on Teesside which made it only two league wins in the last nine ahead of Saturday's trip to Nottingham Forest.

Stuart Pearce's club is in a deeper rut, with no wins in 10, while another of the early pacesetters, Watford, slipped up at Birmingham in midweek against a team who had recently lost 8-0 to Bournemouth.

'That is how it has gone and it has been that way right from the start of the season,' said Adams. 'The key for us is not to have a knee-jerk reaction or over-exaggerate one bad defeat. We will always be honest and there was no excuses offered after the Middlesbrough game and there won't be, whereas in previous matches I felt we deserved more than we got. We are in a good position still. If other teams had strung a run together that might not be the case so this is an opportunity for us now. Tuesday has gone, in the same manner as the Bolton game last week. It is about Forest and making a better fist of it.'

Adams is all too aware that City's slump in league results must change.

'I know and I don't need to be told that it's about results,' he said. 'It is clear we have to get back to winning ways, get the points ticking over, and get ourselves back in contention. The good thing is we are only four off the top because there is no team which has shown that consistency. One or two have got themselves up there now but like us and others who have been in that position they have unexpectedly lost games so it is still really for one team to go and string a run together and get themselves in pole position.'