Norwich City

Southampton moved into the Championship play-off places with a 1-0 win at Norwich City on Wednesday night.

For the Canaries it was a fourth successive defeat and leaves them outside the relegation zone on goal difference.

Here is what some of the fans of both sides made of the game and their team's performance:

Norwich City fans

Peter - Looks like it is going to be a relegation battle. Far too many players walking around the field out of position. The players look lost and it's only going to get worse.

Rob - Not going to name names but some players aren't putting in a shift each game. Defenders ball watching, forwards lacking quality and we miss Kenny McLean. If every player put in the same shift as Pelle Mattson we'd be OK.

Edd - It's just tiny margins, that's all, and we keep slipping the wrong side at the moment but, give Philippe Clement time as we will regret letting him go. Just give it time, still very early in the season right now.

Andy - Clement needs to get the team back to how they played last season. They are far better than they are playing now.

Rob R - It's happening again like last season.

Jas - Not sure what's happened to Norwich. Obviously the injury to Mohamed Toure is bad news, but I don't understand why Jovon Makama doesn't start, unless he's still unfit. Desperately need a win and some confidence back. Not feeling too optimistic.

Image source, Shutterstock

Southampton fans

Stuart - Great win for Saints. We needed to improve our away performances and start picking up points to stay in contention for promotion.

Jon - Not pretty with key players rested but what a great squad the club has assembled with hopefully still some young talent to come through. Daniel Peretz in goal and the defence look assured.

Jeremy - Southampton are clearly outright promotion candidates. But for their four-point deduction they would be sitting in third place just three points off the current leaders.

Rob B - An excellent three points earned with determination and hard work while maybe not hitting the heights this team is capable of. Tonda Eckert was brave in his team selection and the players responded. He really is very good at the wheel!

Pete - We have a good blend of experienced and younger players and now look like a side that knows what it takes to be successful. Dreading promotion back to the Premier League, last time was easily the most demoralising season I can remember and my first game at The Dell was in 1967.

Lee - Thought Zach Abbott, on loan from Nottingham Forest, made an excellent debut for Saints. Slotted right in to our back four, made some intelligent runs, looking entirely at home. Based on that performance I'd snap him up in a heartbeat.

Norwich City head coach Philippe Clement bemoaned his side's lack of efficiency after they slumped to a fifth straight defeat in all competitions with a 1-0 defeat by Southampton.

The Canaries had several good chances before and after half-time, but were unable to beat Daniel Peretz in the Southampton goal and are just one point above the Championship relegation zone.

Clement also criticised the lack of impact from his substitutes as they tried to salvage something from the game.

"Very frustrated because it was again small margins," he told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"I saw a team that gave everything for 70 minutes. I was not pleased with some of the players coming on. There is maybe the excuse that they are a long time out, but I expected more.

"For 70 minutes we played a good game and created enough chances to score. We didn't give away much against a good team. A lot of positives to take, but in the end it's about results."

Clement replaced Liam Manning as Norwich boss in November last year and guided City through choppy waters to a ninth-place finish.

He said he expected a much better start to the new campaign, but insisted Norwich are close to turning things around.

"We need players who step up, who get fuel out of the disappointment. We need to build, like we did last season, when the team was in a much worse state than it is now.

"It is close. Everybody who saw the game will say it was an equal game, toe to toe. The team has been working hard, things are not falling our side, so we need to push that luck. The team needs to show the same mentality and keep playing like a team - then the points will follow."

The latest episode of BBC Radio Norfolk's The Scrimmage podcast is out now.

Rob Butler and Chris Reeve are joined by Sensible Soccer creator and Norwich City fan Jon Hare to discuss the latest disappointing result for the Canaries.

Listen above or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

Norwich City will look to stem a three-match losing streak and create some distance from the bottom three when they host Southampton on Wednesday (19:45 BST).

It won't be an easy task though, with Southampton jubilant following a 1-0 derby day victory over Portsmouth on Sunday despite going down to 10 men when Cam Bragg was sent off at the end of the first half.

It leaves the Saints just one point short of the play-off positions going into the midweek games but they still have five to make up on the automatic promotion spots.

• Norwich have only lost one of their last seven home league games against Southampton (W4 D2), going down 0-3 in the Premier League in June 2020.

• Southampton have only lost two of their last eight league matches against Norwich (W4 D2), winning 1-0 most recently in March.

• Norwich lost their last Championship game at Carrow Road 3-4 to Bolton, but are yet to lose two in a row at home in 2026.

• Southampton have failed to win their first four away games of a season outside of the Premier League for the first time since 2009-10 in League One (first 5).

• Against no side has Southampton's Finn Azaz scored more goals in his English league career than against Norwich (4).

Swansea City could be off the top of the table by the time they meet Norwich City on Saturday (12:30 BST).

A victory for West Ham over QPR on Friday night (20:00 BST) would send the Hammers to the summit at the expense of the Swans.

• Swansea City have won their past three home league matches against Norwich City since a 1-0 defeat in the 2022-23 season under Russell Martin.

• Norwich have won just one of their past seven league games against Swansea, a 5-1 home victory in January 2025.

• Swansea have picked up 17 points in their eight Championship matches this season (W5 D2 L1), their best start to a season since 2019-20, when they also had 17 points.

• No side has conceded more goals in the Championship this season than Norwich (17), who have lost both of their past two games 4-3 against Middlesbrough and Bolton. They are the first side in the top four tiers to lose consecutive league games despite scoring three goals since Newcastle in December 2012, while no side has lost three on the bounce when scoring at least three times.

• This season in the Championship, Norwich's Ben Chrisene is one of only two defenders in the competition to record more than 20 tackles (21) and more than 30 possession duel wins (33), alongside West Brom's Callum Styles.

Robbie Savage will have his first crack at management in the EFL after taking over at Peterborough United, while Michael Duff has replaced Graham Alexander at Bradford City.

Savage and Duff both appear on the latest 72+ EFL podcast with Jobi McAnuff, who is joined by Luke Chambers and Tommy Smith.

The panel also discuss the teams who have impressed and disappointed them in the Championship so far this season.

Spoiler alert... Stoke City, Swansea City, QPR, Burnley, Norwich City and Derby County all get a mention.

Listen to the full episode above or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

Image source, Getty Images

Woking have signed Norwich City goalkeeper Vicente Reyes on a three-month loan deal.

The Chile under-23 international spent the first half of last season on loan with Peterborough United and has made four first-team appearances for Norwich.

Reyes, 22, started his career in Major League Soccer with Atlanta United before joining the Canaries in July 2023.

He has also had loan spells with Braintree Town, Cambridge United and Woking's fellow National League club Forest Green Rovers.

The latest episode of BBC Radio Norfolk's The Scrimmage podcast is out now.

Former Norwich City physio Stuart Wardle joins Phil and Chris to talk injuries, plus a chat with Dereham Town and former Canaries striker Grant Holt.

Listen above or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

Image source, Getty Images

Norwich City midfielder Kenny McLean has withdrawn from the Scotland squad for their upcoming Nations League matches.

The Canaries captain, 34, played the full 90 minutes of their 4-3 defeat by Bolton Wanderers in the Championship on Sunday but has pulled out of international duty because of injury.

McLean was part of Scotland's World Cup squad and featured in all three of their group games as they were knocked out in the first phase of the competition in the summer.

Scotland face Slovenia twice, Switzerland and North Macedonia in the Nations League during the three-week international break.

We asked for your thoughts after Bolton Wanderers twice came from behind to win 4-3 at Norwich City on Sunday.

Here are some of your comments:

Norwich City fans

Philip: 13 goals conceded in the last three games, just isn't good enough!

Mike: Only one team scored more. West Ham second in the league. Only one team conceded more. Burnley bottom of the league. What does that tell you?

Alan: They are clearly in need of a defence that can actually stop conceding so many goals. Eight in two matches is relegation form. On the current showing they will struggle all season. Their honeymoon period with the new manager is clearly over.

Stephen: Why did Clement not change the defence? Bolton manager out-thought him, they played down their right all game, Cordoba couldn't cope. This one is on Clement. Honeymoon is over.

Keith: Though we have sorted the forward situation out and now have a very strong forward line our defence is still the weakest and we cannot defend against fast big forwards and have a useless goalkeeper who continues to be beaten on his near post. Needs sorting out.

Image source, Getty Images

Bolton Wanderers fans

Paul: Absolutely worked their socks off and thoroughly deserved a first away win.

Chris: It's hard on the nerves watching Bolton this season. The defence is rather suspect and our inability to shut out the opposition has already cost us points this season. The Norwich defence is thankfully worse than Bolton's though.

Michael: Three points is all that matters. Consolidate first season in the Championship. Brilliant group of players who stick together as a team. Manager deserves credit for working on a shoestring.

Simon: No doubt Bolton have quality going forward - but the lack of positional performance in defence needs fixing - quickly.

Graham: No problem scoring, just very vulnerable at set pieces - five goals already this season.

Image source, Shutterstock

Norwich City manager Philippe Clement spoke to BBC Radio Norfolk and felt his side lost their composure in their crazy 4-3 home loss to Bolton Wanderers.

For a written selection of his quotes, click here.