Sargent says Norwich must find 'reason to fight'

Josh Sargent has scored 15 goals for Norwich City this season

Norwich City striker Josh Sargent has urged team-mates to "find something to fight for" following a run of three successive defeats.

After losing 2-1 at Burnley on 11 April, City conceded eight goals in their two Easter games against Portsmouth and Millwall.

It left the Canaries, who reached the Championship play-offs last season before being beaten by Leeds United, down in 14th place.

Asked to sum up the Easter weekend - which ended up costing boss Johannes Hoff Thorup his job - Sargent told BBC Radio Norfolk it had been "embarrassing".

He said: "The fans are rightly very upset, it's just nowhere near good enough from us.

"It just comes down to doing basic things right, everybody working hard, showing passion - that's the bare minimum we need to do."

Norwich's only win in their last 10 games came against West Brom, and losing six of them ended any hopes of again finishing in the top six.

A number of players will be out of contract at the end of the season and Sargent said he hoped it was not the case that some had simply switched off with the play-offs out of reach.

The US international added: "We've had poor form recently and it's just not working. All of us can feel that, nobody is walking off the pitch happy about how they've played. It's a very frustrating atmosphere.

"After the last game (against Portsmouth), we made it clear that we might not be fighting for anything in terms of the play-offs or relegation, but we all individually have to find something to fight for, whether that's for your family or whatever.

"Find something to bring out that passion on the pitch, which doesn't look like it's there from us."

Before his departure from Carrow Road on Tuesday, head coach Thorup cited an inability to defend set-pieces and not being calm enough on the ball as two reasons for his side's decline in recent weeks.

"Everyone expected this would be a season where, unless we had every player available for the whole season, there would be ups and downs," the Dane said.

"Now we are in a moment of the season when it's much more down than up, then to go back to short-term decisions is not the right thing, then we are not building what we have been very clear we want to build.

"There is no short-term solution here, it's long-term and hopefully with all the decisions we have taken and are going to take we'll build an even stronger team, a team that is better suited to the way we want to play."