Alex Neil admitted Norwich City were well below par in a frustrating 0-0 Championship draw against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday evening.

The Canaries hammered Blackburn 4-1 on the opening weekend of the campaign but looked toothless and lacking creativity for long spells at Carrow Road against a resolute Owls' outfit.

'I think in terms of performance we were nowhere near what we can reach,' he said. 'First half, I thought both teams had little spells of dominance. If you pick up the ball in the middle of the park it allowed both teams to get their full-backs to step in because we both looked to play narrow and dominate the ball. I thought in the second half our retention of the ball didn't allow us to work our way up the pitch like we normally do. We got very narrow at the top of the pitch and because of the distances between the front and back the full-backs got pinned back and that created a problem for us. We didn't keep the ball well as we normally do. We found it tight and tough.

'We showed in the first half we could cause them problems but we didn't play as well as we normally do. The lads we rely on to keep the ball moving, the technical players who we need to get those triangles going, lost the ball too often. We didn't make the correct choice of pass, we were slack and our touch was not good enough. Sometimes you get that and we had one of those days.'

City picked up two further injuries as well, with Martin Olsson (hamstring) and John Ruddy (groin) forced to depart early after midfield duo Alex Pritchard (stomach) and Jacob Murphy (leg) had missed out before kick-off. Both Olsson and Ruddy are now major doubts for Bristol City's midweek visit.

'I think they will be big doubts for Tuesday (against Bristol City). We only have a couple of days between now and then so it looks unlikely,' said Neil. 'Martin strained his hamstring at Blackburn but it tightened up rather than muscle damage and he trained Friday perfectly fine but after the run down the channel with Gary Hooper it re-occurred and he couldn't continue. John Ruddy opened his groin up and couldn't continue.'