Defensive woes cost Norwich City yet again during EFL Cup shoot-out defeat at Leeds United

Tuesday night saw Norwich City knocked out of the EFL Cup following a penalty shoot-out defeat to Leeds United. 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra-time saw the two Championship clubs level at 2-2, before penalty misses from City’s Alex Pritchard, Steven Naismith and Robbie Brady ensured a 3-2 shoot-out win for the Elland Road hosts.

There is no doubt about it: Norwich should be in the quarter-finals. City supporters should today be basking in the rarity in a Norwich cup run, and dreaming of a second Wembley trip in the space of three years. Instead we are left ruing over the same mistakes that have crippled us for the past two seasons: an inability to defend, incompetent game-management and ultimately a fragility to our side that leaves us constantly vulnerable.

Despite making nine changes from the side who lost to Preston on Saturday, our line-up was strong. The likes of Alex Pritchard, Steven Naismith and Nelson Oliveira would walk into almost any side in the Championship and, against a second-string Leeds side, we should have had more than enough quality to navigate the tie and book a place in Wednesday night’s cup draw. After the opening 30 minutes it looked like such expectations would be met as City had dominated proceedings and were a goal up following Alex Pritchard’s 13th-minute header. It was no less than Norwich deserved and it could have been even better as numerous chances were spurned, notably one of which fell to Naismith within seconds of kick-off - his shot being well thwarted by Marco Silvestri in the Leeds goal. Nonetheless, the lead was just one and, considering City’s recent failings, this was by no means comfortable and it was somewhat unsurprising when we began to allow Leeds back into the game. Having been on the front foot for the majority of the game, we were now being pushed back, and a Norwich City defence - whether it be first or second string - being pushed back is recipe for disaster. Rather comically, we conceded three times in the remaining 15 minutes of the first half - only one of them counted but the fact that Leeds had found the net three times in their only three attacks perfectly illustrates our defensive incompetence.

The season has been defined by Norwich only playing well in very small periods of matches and it quickly became apparent that the opening half hour would be the match’s ‘designated period’ - for the rest of it we were, quite frankly, rubbish. The second half was a bit of a non-event in that neither side were at their best, but if there was one team that was going to prevent the match from going to extra-time then it was Leeds - if not for a miss-of-the-season contender from Alex Mowatt and a couple of impressive stops from John Ruddy, this would have indeed been the outcome. Nonetheless, we managed to take the game into the extra half-an-hour and, following an injury to Lewis Coyle, Leeds would have to play this extended period with a man disadvantage.

When Nelson Oliveira headed home from a perfect Pritchard cross in the 99th minute to put City 2-1 ahead, the game was surely secured. Holding onto leads is hardly a forte of Alex Neil’s side, but, with an extra man against a tiring and technically inferior Leeds side, we could not have wished for a more favourable situation. Inevitably, however, we still managed to throw it away. At a stage when continuing to take the game to Leeds would have likely resulted in more goals and a confirmed victory, we decided to sit back. With this pattern set for the remainder of extra-time there was only going to be one outcome: a Leeds equaliser, which came in the 109th minute as Ruddy tamely parried the ball into the path of Chris Wood who tapped home into an empty net. The momentum was now all with Leeds and whether it be finding a winner in extra-time, or winning on penalties, the result seemed inevitable. Ultimately they had to take the route of penalties, in which they came out of 3-2 winners: the lack of mental fortitude that cost City during normal time rearing its ugly head again in a tame shoot-out effort.

Frustration. Utter, utter frustration. Norwich should have won that game. We should have beaten Fulham last week, and we should have beaten Newcastle last month. The quality is there - the mental strength, character and game-management is not. Without the latter, the former will only get you so far - as we are currently discovering.

Saturday sees Norwich travel to second-placed Brighton and huge, huge improvement will be required if we are to come away with anything. For me, it is the biggest game of Alex Neil’s Norwich career. There is no doubt that our team is currently performing below the sum of its parts and, when this is the case, the blame, rightly or wrongly, will fall at the feet of the manager.

Defeat on the south-coast and I will begin to believe that the Scots days at the club are increasingly numbered.