Dean Smith has revealed that he is “disappointed” to see Norwich suffer relegation from the Premier League after losing 2-0 at Aston Villa.
Having endured two promotions and relegation in the last three seasons, Norwich once again found themselves relegated after losing 2-0 at Aston Villa on Saturday (30 April) as Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings scored late in both halves for the Villains.
Two late goals from Burnley to snatch a 2-1 win at Watford meanwhile ultimately sealed Norwich’s fate which left manager, Dean Smith “disappointed for a lot of people – the owners, the supporters and everyone to do with the football club,” as the Canaries prepare to return to the Championship.
This defeat also saw Smith return to Villa Park for the first time since he was sacked by Villa in early November, less than 24 hours after Norwich had fired Daniel Farke as both teams back then battled relegation and the Canaries swiftly appointed Smith as Farke’s replacement.
Smith consequently vowed to share an apportion of the blame for the club’s failure to stay up as he added: “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.”
The 51 year-old also proceeded to explain that Norwich hadn’t “quite reached the levels” needed to deliver results in “bigger games” against teams around them in the fight for survival.
Raising their 3-1 home loss to Brentford in early March as an example of where Norwich blew their survival chances, Smith said: “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.”
Smith also praised the fans for their support and criticised those who branded the word “apathy” around the club, as he commented: “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.”
Looking ahead to the rest of this season and beyond, Smith admitted that the team and squad quality so far “haven’t been good enough” but has vowed to learn from the experience and “come back stronger for the last four games and then next season.”
Smith concluded by issuing a rallying call for the team and fans as he explained: “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.”