Skipper David Norris felt the players let down the fans and Roy Keane and his management staff during Sunday’s 4-1 derby defeat at Norwich. The 29-year-old hopes they can go some way towards making amends when the Blues take on West Brom at Portman Road in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup on Wednesday.
Norris said: "It was hard to even go over to the fans at the end of the game. They stood out yesterday and when a few of us went over to their section they clapped us. It was almost embarrassing to take it.
"We have got to start giving them something back starting with Wednesday’s Carling Cup quarter-final against West Brom.
"To the players it was probably just another game — another three points. But to the staff their jobs are on the line.
"And to our fans there was local pride at stake, and the derby really means a lot to them. We let them all down. It was an embarrassing defeat with no positives and us players have got to look at ourselves."
Norris, who is in talks regarding extending his time at Portman Road beyond the end of the season, says Keane and his coaches do everything to ensure positive results: "The manager and staff prepare us right on the training ground. They can change this and change that but once we cross the white line it is down to us.
"The manager is coming under increasing pressure, as we all do when you are losing games. We are playing for new contracts, and it is part and parcel of football, but we have to give ourselves a chance.”
The former Plymouth man says the derby was a chance to turn things around after the three previous defeats: "This was no ordinary game and after losing three on the trot this was a match that could have put right the wrongs of the three previous games.
"As mistakes go the first two Norwich goals were shockers. We are not picking on individuals and they were from players you can normally rely on, but they had no place in a game like yesterday’s.”