CHRIS LAKEY Canaries defender Martin Taylor is hoping to help City shake off an unwanted statistic this season by chipping in with an early goal at Plymouth this afternoon.

CHRIS LAKEY

Canaries defender Martin Taylor is hoping to help City shake off an unwanted statistic this season by chipping in with an early goal at Plymouth this afternoon.

Taylor was on target on his debut after his loan move from Birmingham, with the first goal in the comeback 2-2 draw with Ipswich on Sunday.

And another one at Home Park, preferably in the first half, wouldn't go amiss, particularly as City have a terrible record this season of getting off the mark before half-time.

In both of Taylor's games in City colours, he has seen the opposition score twice, without reply, before the half-time turnaround. The stat may surprise him, but it won't surprise City fans, who have seen their team take the lead just twice this season - and score in the first half just once. That was against Cardiff in September, when Simon Lappin scored in the 12th minute, only for the visitors to take the points with two goals in the final half an hour.

The only other time City have scored first was in the 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace, when David Strihavka scored with 15 minutes left - a goal that was the last for City for another 10½ hours.

Taylor's eager to get in on the act again, but admits it's a puzzling problem for City bsos Glenn Roeder.

“It is always important to get the first goal,” he said. “It's difficult to come back from two down - we had a good go at it again on Tuesday. I'm not sure what it is - we started both games really well so I don't think it's the way we start, I think we just need to keep concentration. If we lose a goal we can't let our heads go down and we have to make sure we don't lose another. If we can get our noses in front you never know, we can hang on.

“Going 2-0 down at half-time a lot of teams would be saying they don't start games well, but both games we have done. Maybe it's a lack of concentration at certain times - when we go one down we have to shut up shop and make sure we don't lose another one.

“You are always in the game at 1-0, but at 2-0 it changes the game quite a lot. I think that is a big part of the game, concentrating for the full 90 minutes and we seem to be doing it in the second half and not so much in the first half, which is unusual.”

Taylor's goal against Ipswich has been credited in some quarters as an own goal by Owen Garvan, but the defender is having none of it.

“I got a touch on it - if it's going towards goal it should be mine,” he said. “I'm not sure what they do with them nowadays but I got a touch on it and I will stake a claim for it, definitely.”

To stand any chance of another he has to be allowed more time in the opposition penalty box than he was on Tuesday, when City had just one corner - compared to the 11 against the Tractor Boys.

“We didn't get as many corners - against Ipswich we did get a lot of corners and put good pressure on them,” he said. “I think against Watford it was a bit more difficult and we didn't get in there as much. You just have to take any opportunity you can to try and force something in if you can. You have to score from all over the team, the midfielders as well, but if you can nick one from a set piece it always helps.”