Swans' boss Brendan Rodgers was critical of his men's lax defending after the Welsh visitors extended their wretched start to life on the road in the Premier League.

Rodgers' side was two goals down inside 10 frenetic minutes at Carrow Road before Danny Graham maintained his purple patch against the Canaries to raise hopes of a fightback.

Anthony Pilkington's sharp close- range finish after the break underlined Norwich's superiority on the day to leave Swansea still searching for a first away point.

'I thought we were 2-0 down before we really started the game,' said the Northern Irishman.

'Offensively, I thought we looked bright and clever and looked threatening but it was one of the very few times I think I have had to say, no matter how good we have played in the past, we have always managed to be very solid defensively and today we weren't.

'It was one of those games when some of the basics of our defending went missing and we conceded goals. Congratulations to Norwich, they got their goals and won the game and when you are a newly-promoted team in your first year that is what you have to do.'

Swansea had endured tough trips to Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea already in the opening weeks but Rodgers insisted he was under no illusions at the size of the task against one of their more familiar foes.

'I always knew that coming here was going to be as difficult as every other week,' he said. 'Our home form is important to us this season, but we need to pick up points.

'This group is good enough to do that but what we need to have is that mentality and that resistance in our game and unfortunately, like I say, there is only a few times since I have been here when we haven't.

'Normally we play well and people all talk about our style of football. Normally our organisation defensively is very good and our aggression but today it didn't happen.'

Graham's third goal in three contests against Norwich sparked Swansea's best period of the game prior to the interval when the visitors were able to pin back Paul Lambert's side for a sustained spell of pressure around John Ruddy's goal.

'I thought going down 2-0 so early you can always fear the worst but I know with these players the mentality is very strong,' he said.

'They will always keep going. To get the goal, a terrific goal from Danny, and again I thought his all round play was outstanding. To get back in at 2-1 you have a chance then. The third is the first goal we have conceded from a corner. We appreciate how important set-pieces are this year and that was the disappointment because normally in those areas we have been really strong.

'I think for us today there was lots of encouragement in terms of when we had the ball, our passing and movement was terrific but we just gave ourselves a real uphill task being two goals down.'

Rodgers also singled out talented young midfielder Joe Allen for special praise after a gruelling international week for the Welshman. The 21-year-old featured alongside Norwich duo Andrew Crofts and Steve Morison in a Euro2012 winning double-header.

'Outstanding. Two games and coming off the back of that to go again in an away game,' he said.

'He is 21-year-old player who had to cope with all the travelling as well but his energy and his quality was absolutely first class.

'He is a player who has really grown with us over the last season or so and he is continuing to show great quality. I thought him and Danny were excellent with his touch, movement and runs down the sides to create opportunities but unfortunately we didn't capitalise on that.'