Burnley 2 Norwich City 0: Worthington sees chance slipping

Norwich manager Nigel Worthington conceded his side's chances of claiming a Coca-Cola Championship play-off place were fading after his side were beaten 2-0 at Burnley.

Worthington's men remain seven points adrift of sixth-placed Preston, who have two games in hand on City, after losing to goals either side of half-time from Andy Gray and Graham Branch.

And Worthington said: "It'll be very difficult and it's not over the last six or seven games, it's over the 46 games.

"The word that has been with us all season is inconsistent.

"When you lose games at this stage of the season the door closes a little bit more.

"At the moment it's not shut tight so while there's a glimmer of hope, you've always got a chance - but we've certainly made it more difficult for ourselves."

The Canaries had five clear chances in the opening quarter of an hour with Leon McKenzie tamely lobbing at goalkeeper Brian Jensen and also having a shot headed off the line by Jon Harley.

Jonatan Johansson hit the bar with a header and saw another scrambled clear by Frank Sinclair, while Jensen also thwarted Darren Huckerby.

Worthington added: "You have got to take your chances and in the first 15 minutes we had three or four great chances. We didn't convert them and we paid the price.

"After the first 15 minutes Burnley controlled the game."

Victory ended a run of six successive defeats for Burnley and Gray's effort was a first goal for the Clarets - who were in play-off contention at Christmas - in 512 minutes.

Fine moves saw Branch cross for Gray to turn and finish in the 18th minute before a neat centre from Phil Bardsley was nodded in at the far post by Branch five minutes after the break.

Clarets chief Steve Cotterill felt his side were well worth their victory and said: "We're delighted with it. We felt that in the first 10 or 15 minutes we got that bit of luck that perhaps deserted us in recent weeks.

"Over the 90 minutes I think we did deserve to win the game and I'm really pleased for all the players.

"It was a good win, a good team ethic, a couple of good goals and a clean sheet to boot.

"It has been a long time this and it's been tough on everyone at the club. We said that if we got the first goal our football would come flooding back and I thought it did.

"As soon as we got the first goal it was as if 'what's all the worry about?' and I think that showed in our play."