Alex Neil admits Norwich City were almost made to pay for taking their foot off the gas against Cardiff City.

The Canaries were 2-0 up going into the final five minutes but failed to see out the game comfortably after Anthony Pilkington found the net for the visitors.

Even Josh Murphy's strike, which restored his side's two-goal advantage, failed to settle any growing nerves with Pilkington finding the net again in a manner which annoyed Neil and his players.

'I think it's a frustration that we are all sharing in the changing room,' said Neil.

'We were 2-0 up, I enjoyed the game for 85 minutes, and for the last 10 I was sweating watching it from the side. I think we're frustrated because we clocked off, thought the game was done, and got outdone by two set plays – which is something throughout the game we dealt with well. We just didn't pick up our markers properly and it cost us.

'I went with offensive subs in (Alex) Pritchard and Josh (Murphy) but at that stage it was 2-0 and 80-odd minutes. Alex Pritchard could have scored a third, to put it to bed, but missed the chance. Josh got another opportunity but tried to cut it back for Cameron (Jerome) and it went out of play. Then in the next minute they score.

'Maybe it's a twist of fate but then Josh goes up the other side and scores the goal. It wasn't the perfect three points for us but it's three points we've picked up and it puts us into the top four which was the main aim.'

Cameron Jerome and Russell Martin had put City in control, although the latter's strike appeared to hit Jonny Howson on its way into the net.