Neil Adams is hurting just as much as Norwich City’s fans after Boro battering

Neil Adams insisted Norwich City's abject Championship Middlesbrough mauling hurt him just as badly as the 554 travelling supporters.

The Canaries' were hammered 4-0 at the Riverside in the club's heaviest league defeat of the season, and Adams accepts his side were guilty of short-changing those who made the 456-mile round trip to Teesside.

'I feel for those fans who travelled. Absolutely. They were over in the corner and I could hear them shouting all game,' he said. 'We have given them nothing to be happy about and you feel for them. I know how they will be feeling. They will be feeling exactly the same as I am, disappointed in the players who we all know are better than that.

'They didn't perform anywhere near their capabilities.'

City's fourth league loss of the season was unacceptable for the Norwich boss.

'Compared to the three previous defeats this was hard to take just because of the manner in which it happened and had the game carried on for another 10 or 15 minutes you could only see Middlesbrough scoring more goals,' he said. 'That is a concern for me because in other games we have looked like we could get back into a match, as we have proved, but this was a home team who were comfortable.

'You look at the performance and you can't begrudge Middlesbrough the win. They were solid, strong and played good football. We made it too easy for them. We didn't retain the ball well enough, we didn't use it well enough and that is something we have generally done okay.

'Even when we were not winning recently the performances were there. In this game we merited what we got.'