Norwich will 'learn lessons' from Premier League relegation
Manager Dean Smith says he's disappointed for the owners, the supporters and everyone to do with the football club
Norwich City have been relegated from the Premier League for a record sixth time.
It was a nail biting afternoon for Canaries fans but a 2-0 loss at Villa Park and a win for Burnley sealed their fate.
Defeat was down to goals from Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings, the second somewhat cruelly created by former Norwich man Emi Buendia, though the killer blows were applied 90 miles south at Vicarage Road where Burnley scored twice in four minutes late on to come from behind and beat Watford 2-1.
That left Norwich 13 points adrift of safety with four games left to play.
Speaking after the loss Canaries boss Dean Smith said....
"I take part of the responsibility because I’ve come in here to try to keep us up and unfortunately we haven’t done enough, but that isn’t down to the performance today.
“Unfortunately, in a lot of the bigger games this season, we’ve not quite reached the levels that we need to. I thought the Brentford game was a pivotal game for us and I felt we needed to keep Watford and Brentford in and around us, so it made it very difficult from there. We’ve had chances but we haven’t taken the ones that we need.
“The fans have been outstanding. People are talking about the word apathy with our football club and that couldn’t be further from the truth. I saw the supporters out there today backing the football club, I saw the players fighting until the end.
“Ultimately, we haven’t been good enough and the quality of our squad to stay in the Premier League hasn’t been good enough, so we’ll learn from it. We have to come back stronger for the last four games and then next season.
“It’s a one club county and a one city club. We have to go and be together in what we do now and move forward together.”
There was also disappointment for Kings Lynn Town .
A win for Aldershot sealed their relegation from the National League despite a battling 3-3 draw with Eastleigh.
Gold Omotayo grabbed two goals and Ross Barrows added a third in the 89th minute but results elsewhere brought an end to the Linnets two year spell in the league.