AUDIO: Paul Lambert was keen to reflect on the positives as his battling Norwich City side went down to new Championship leaders, Cardiff City.

'You can't give somebody a two-goal start, let alone a team that's going great at the minute, but I thought we were excellent the way we came back and never capitulated or anything like that – but that could easily have been done the way Cardiff have been playing,' said Lambert.

'I felt we played really well the first half – we had a lot of the ball and caused them a lot of problems and on another day we might have got a couple more, but the penalty I thought was strange, but anyway he gave it.'

Elliott Ward's first half handball in the box – moments after Wes Hoolahan had got Norwich back into the game at 2-1 with a great header – saw Peter Whittingham restore Cardiff's two-goal first half advantage.

'You can't say whether it's going to cost you or not, but it certainly contributes to it,' said Lambert.

'It's hard enough coming here and trying to get the game back at 2-0 down but when you're 3-1 down it's even tougher, but I thought the referee pulled his cards out quicker than Paul Daniels ever does.'

City's false start saw Jay Bothroyd open the scoring after nine minutes – by which time the home side had already gone close from a similar set piece.

'We should have won the header from the set piece, and the second one was just a straight ball from the goalkeeper into the heart of us.

'But the lads know, they don't need me to stand and tell them exactly what's happened,' said Lambert.

'As I have said before, we've been on a terrific roll since we've been here and we are still up here. You have got to try and be a realist...we gave everything we had.'