Hughton stays calm amid poor run

The Canaries are seeking a response to last weekend's 7-0 humiliation at Manchester City when West Ham come to Carrow Road for Saturday's late kick-off.

Although Norwich have lost six of their opening 10 Barclays Premier League matches and sit in 18th place, they are only four points off 12th and victory would move them above the Irons.

Having lost to both Chelsea and Arsenal, as well as Manchester United in the Capital One Cup, before being taken apart by Manuel Pellegrini's big-money squad, Norwich now enter a run of fixtures from which they would expect a positive return to start moving up the table.

Hughton - who kept Norwich up last season after being appointed successor to Paul Lambert - may be short odds to become the next Premier League manager to be sacked, but remains calm about the situation.

"There is no need to set the alarm bells ringing," he said.

"If we win on Saturday we go above West Ham and it changes the perceptions a little bit.

"What we can't do is look at the negatives. For me, they are in the past.

"We made sure we closed down last week's game as quickly as we could."

Hughton retains the backing of the boardroom - although it was only a few weeks ago chairman Alan Bowkett warned expectation was of a top-10 finish following an unprecedented summer investment of some £25million by the Norfolk club.

"I am convinced I will get the time to turn it around," Hughton said.

"We are possibly one or two results from being in a half decent position in the league, so it is not as if we are bottom and cut adrift.

"That, of course, doesn't make the feeling any better and we don't want to be in the bottom three, but we have everybody pushing in the right direction."

Hughton added: "I speak to the chief executive and the board on a regular basis and there isn't anyone at this football club who doesn't want us to make progress.

"Everybody is hurting right now - not just me and the players, but the board and the fans. We all want the same things."

Norwich will again be without record-signing Ricky van Wollfswinkel because of the Holland forward's foot injury, but should have Scotland winger Robert Snodgrass available again following concussion.

Hughton believes patience will be key to progress.

"Yes, possibly there will be times during the game when it might be difficult to break down a side like West Ham, who have been defensively very good, and that is when we might need a little bit of patience - that applies to the team as much as the supporters," he said.

"We can't be throwing players forward at will, we have to get things right tactically so that might mean there are periods or lulls in the game which might lead to some frustrations.

"All I can say is I know our support have been right behind us this season and that will not change this weekend - we will need them again."

Source: PA

Source: PA