Neil Adams accentuated the positives in the aftermath of Norwich City's second Championship deadlock at Carrow Road against Birmingham City.

The Canaries fell short of matching the emphatic response that swept aside Blackburn on home soil in August after another early setback when Callum Reilly's deflected shot deceived John Ruddy.

Demarai Gray's cool finish heightened the anxiety levels before Cameron Jerome's latest brace salvaged another hard-earned point to maintain the club's upward curve.

'I said in the pre-match talk the key word for me was complacency. We had to avoid it. I believe we have. No-one is going to point the finger at my players and say we were complacent,' said Adams. 'We were ready for it. It just didn't go for us in that first half. You could probably say we were a touch complacent at Cardiff because we didn't come out of the traps at all, but in this game we suffered a fluke first goal and then had some poor marking but that can happen to any team.

'Look across the league and there will be other clubs this weekend who will have drawn when they were expected to win. That is the Championship for you but we are unbeaten in seven, we're second from top and we're quite pleased with how things are going, but obviously there is disappointment from not winning a home game, which we need to do.'

Norwich were on the front foot until Reilly's intervention, with Lewis Grabban spurning a chance before the Blues broke the deadlock.

'We started well. We forced a corner within 20 seconds, and if Lewis buries that we probably go on to win the game comfortably. That's not attributing blame to Lewis but those are the margins,' said Adams. 'We had the energy and intensity I wanted to see and the crowd were right behind us but their first goal is a fluke; albeit John is bitterly disappointed in there and felt he should have saved it. He doesn't need to apologise because he has been excellent for us this season but it just spun out of his grasp following the deflection. The second goal was sloppiness on the second phase of a free kick. I didn't feel we deserved that.'

Adams admitted the nature of Norwich's Cardiff riposte was fresh in the memory.

'It helped at the interval that we could remind them,' said Adams. 'I said last week hopefully we wouldn't have to do that too many times and certainly not as quickly, but we found ourselves in another situation where we had to dig ourselves out of a mess. We showed great character and we virtually played in their half after the break. We got the two goals, we couldn't quite muster a third.'

Norwich's plight could have been even worse at the interval after Clayton Donaldson went down in the home penalty area after getting the wrong side of Russell Martin, although Bradley Johnson's strike appeared to hit Jonathan Grounds' right arm at the opposite end.

'I think Lee (Clark) would say his was deserved and I would say likewise so they probably evened themselves out,' said Adams. 'We either both get them or we don't. I can't complain because their one wasn't given. Strong claims, I think both were, but if the referee doesn't give it you get on with it.'