Neil Adams remains adamant that he did not sever his ties with Mark Robson as a result of Norwich City's tumble down the Championship table.

The Canaries' boss parted company with his first-team coach last week to cap a miserable period that saw the club drop to first to 10th and suffer a 4-0 mauling at Middlesbrough. But Adams insists, after filling the role with widely-respected former Manchester United assistant Mike Phelan yesterday, that a dramatic downturn in form played no part in his decision to wield the axe.

The City manager said: 'It was my decision, and mine alone. The thing we've got here at the club is we need to be 100pc together. Tight as a unit, as a team as a group. I wasn't happy with the way we had a few issues. I should have probably dealt with it a little bit earlier. What I can't allow to happen is anything to detract from where we want to go and what we want to do, and that's obviously to get back into the Premier League. That means players, staff, whoever. If that's the situation then you have to do something about it.

'The relationship hadn't broken down. But things were detracting from what we wanted. Mark's a good coach who works really hard. I think it's important to put on record the change wasn't made as a result of our results. I think a lot of people made him out to be the scapegoat which is far away from the truth as you could get, irrespective of results.

'Obviously with the international break and after the Nottingham Forest game that people would assume something had to change and Mark was the fall guy for that, but that's not the case.'

Robson joined the Canaries last October to work with the club's development squad before stepping up to assist Adams at the end of last season following Chris Hughton's departure. His exit came in the wake of Norwich's 2-1 Championship defeat at Forest which prolonged a run of two wins in their last 10 league games.

Stepping into the role is a City Hall of Fame member who has starred already at the club as a player and Gary Megson's assistant. Phelan has been out of work for almost 18 months since his spell as Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant came to an end when the managerial legend ended his time at the Old Trafford helm.

City's new coach seemed ready to step out of the shadows and become the main man elsewhere when his time at Manchester United came to the end. But a manager's position never materialised and Adams is not worried that his new colleague is looking to eventually take his job.

Adams said: 'I wanted to get the best coach in, the best coach that we could have to help us get to where we want to go. What I won't do is get someone in who is if you like 'no threat', if you want to call it that.

'I could have got in a million coaches but I think you need to go and get the best and that isn't a problem for me at all. He'll be working with myself, Gary Holt and Tony Parks the goalkeeping coach on a daily basis out on the grass. He's not a head of football or a director of football, he's a first-team coach. He's delighted to be back in the game, he wants to be out there, and we're delighted to give him that opportunity.'