Dean Smith admitted Norwich City’s drab 0-0 Premier League goalless draw at Brighton was a tough watch.

The Canaries’ head coach conceded his shot shy squad look bereft of confidence after a point which did little to revive their hopes of a Premier League escape.

City's 1,850 strong travelling support had precious little to cheer, although Milot Rashica skied over a close range late chance.

“Enthralling. That’s a little bit of sarcasm from me. It wasn’t a great game I didn’t think,” said Smith. “A lot of enforced errors.

"A group of players who are good footballers, for me, but are making some poor decisions on the ball. Off the ball I thought we showed our spirit and our doggedness. None more so than our captain and keeper, who I thought were excellent.

“I know Brighton had an awful lot of the ball and shots, but probably 20 of those were outside the box. When called upon, Tim (Krul) made some good saves and Grant (Hanley) some good blocks. But we needed more quality on the ball.

"The only way you get that is to build the confidence gradually. We were on a sequence of losses, so we have broken that in this game and we can build on that for next week.

“I have not had many of these players for a few weeks because of the international commitments. But when you watch them for their countries they are top players.

"Good footballers, but they have come back to an environment where we have lost a lot of games.

“It is going to affect the confidence. All the work we did was about starting brightly and in the day or two before we have more injuries and have to makes changes. Hence the system change as well.”

Przemyslaw Placheta rolled his ankle in training while Lukas Rupp is again struggling with a hamstring problem.

Smith also confirmed after the stalemate Josh Sargent is set to be in a protective boot for the next 10 days after suffering an ankle injury earlier this week.

Max Aarons (hamstring), Brandon Williams (ankle) and Ozan Kabak (hamstring) were also absent.