The next time Neil Adams hears a reference to Charlton he wants it to act as a watershed moment for the Canaries' Championship fortunes at Carrow Road.

Norwich City's late midweek defeat against the Addicks left a sour taste and a sense of injustice that Adams intends to use as a spark for another unbeaten surge; in the same manner they responded to early-season adversity at Wolves.

'You never, ever want to lose a game but if you need a spur they've got it,' he said. 'Whether that will prove to be the case is only something I can probably answer three or four weeks down the line. If we go on a really good run we can point back to what happened against Charlton.

'It's not a good thing at the moment because it still hurts. I'd never take a defeat to give us a kick up the backside, and we don't need that, not the way we have been playing.

'Maybe it sends a message out to everybody else who were saying things like we'd win the league at a canter. That was a silly comment because everything and anything can happen. It might re-focus those outside the training ground because here we are taking nothing for granted. We're top after 10 games, it's a great start but there are 36 to go.'

City's solitary away league defeat at Molineux offers a perfect reminder for Adams as they prepare to face another newly-promoted opponent on home soil.

'They've got back-to-back promotions and that momentum which Wolves had so it has been easy for us this week to remind the players what they will be up against,' said Adams. 'They had a good win and performance against Blackburn and I'm sure teams will study Charlton's performance to see what they did well. I'm happy if they do. They will see how dominant we were and what we did on the night.

'They are well-organised, they can play, they can mix the game up and go long. It's about us but we know what we are up against. We don't have to say, 'Same again,' because of course we want to win this game, but if the first goal goes in for us this time and we can produce that type of performance then we'll be fine.'

Rotherham's rise through the lower reaches of the Football League in recent times marks them out as something of an unknown quantity, but City's squad will be fully briefed.

'They will know what they need, where Rotherham is strong, what they focus on and the best way for us to go about the task in hand,' said the Norwich boss. 'They might not have household names but we will be aware of what they are about. Our job as coaches is to make sure there are no surprises if my players haven't had any direct experience of playing against them.'