Neil frustrated by poor finishing after Stoke draw

Norwich City manager Alex Neil felt his side were worthy of all three points in their 1-1 Premier League draw with Stoke City on Saturday.

Neil’s men fell behind in the 11th minute as Mame Biram Diouf headed Stoke ahead before Russell Martin levelled matters 17 minutes later at Carrow Road.

Newly promoted Norwich were in charge from that point, but spurned numerous opportunities and were denied by a superb performance from goalkeeper Jack Butland. 

“I don’t think there is any question we should have had all three [points],” Neil said. 

“We were the better side, created pretty much all the opportunities, conceded a sloppy goal from a set-piece which were disappointed with and then created seven really, really good chances which we should have scored.

“Albeit for good goalkeeping or probably poor finishing, we didn’t get the three points we deserved.

“We went toe-to-toe with a team that is aiming to try and finish in the top 10 and maybe even Europe and I thought we were better.

“I thought we acquitted ourselves really well, I was really pleased with how my players went about their business.”

Norwich have taken four points from their opening three games having beaten Sunderland 3-1 last weekend, and Neil believes his side are proving the doubters wrong.

He added: “People are questioning us and saying we’ll probably go down but if you look how we’ve performed over the last three games, we’ve shown everybody what we’re capable of doing.

“I think we should have more points on the board for how well we’ve done. That’s probably my only gripe”