I said in last week's column that Norwich City would be looking to prove a point after losing 4-0 at Millwall on the opening day of the season. And they did just that against us on Saturday.

They won 2-0 with two late goals and to be honest, they deserved it. We didn't play well as a team.

When we arrived at the ground and walked past the fans and into the changing rooms, I could sense something unusual - that they seemed to be frightened of us. It's difficult to explain why, it was just a feeling.

Maybe it was because we had got such a good result in the first match when we beat Watford 3-0. Kevin Keegan told us we should be looking to send a signal in that match that we would be hard to beat and it seemed that Norwich had picked up that signal.

I guess we were feeling how Manchester United must feel every week.

After five minutes of the game, however, it was clear that we were not playing well. Norwich must have started thinking, 'this City team is not what we thought they would be'. As a result they grew in confidence.

It was only in the last five or 10 minutes of the first half that we looked like the real City and we didn't want half-time to come.

As a team, you can afford to have one or two individuals off form. During our bad start, I'd say we had eight players below par and I admit that I was one of them. Three players can't carry the rest.

Our first match was an evening kick-off and it was pleasant and cool, but last Saturday it was a very hot day. Maybe that had something to do with how badly we played, but there are no excuses.

The gaffer was not pleased. He made his feelings clear, but in a calm way.

First he said that if he went through each of us individually, he would do more harm than good. But then he went ahead and told each one of us what he thought of us anyway.

Whatever people might think, players become like school kids at times like that. You know you just have to sit there and take the criticism. One or two players will usually stand up and say something, but we know we have to listen when the manager talks. None of us want to get out of favour with the gaffer.

To make things worse, we suffered three serious injuries. Our goalkeeper Carlo Nash cracked his ribs and he could be out for six to eight weeks. Jeff Whitley broke his ankle and damaged ligaments and he could be out for the season.

And Eyal Berkovic pulled his hamstring and from my own experience of hamstring injuries, I reckon he could be out for a good six weeks.

As I've said in previous columns, Eyal is a creative player and I've been looking forward to getting on the end of a few through balls from him. So I was particularly concerned when he went down. I went over and said: "We need you, we need you." Sometimes when you get a knock, you can get a rub from the 'magic sponge' and run it off, but when I realised it was his hamstring, I knew that was it for him.

What made Saturday even worse was that Paulo Wanchope was sent off and will be suspended. Paulo was also involved in a bit of an incident when he snatched the ball from a ball boy to get play restarted quickly, late in the game when we were losing 1-0. Apparently the ball boy is going to take action against Paulo and the police are involved.

The ball boy was no fool, he's 15-years-old so he knows the game and he was obviously a Norwich supporter. And it wasn't as if Paulo pushed him to the ground.

I said to Paulo that he could easily diffuse the situation if he made an apology to the ball boy through the media.

Paulo ran off the field to retrieve the ball a second time from near the billboards. A couple of fans were trying to get to it, but Paulo didn't touch anyone. And to my mind, he was entitled to go and get the ball.

The crowd were booing Paulo and I think those two incidents might have been in the ref's mind when he sent him off barely two minutes after the second time he fetched the ball.

The season's just two games old and we've already experienced a high and a low. It was great to win the first game and experience that feeling again. But after the second match, our mood was lower than a snake's belly, as the saying goes. And I know which feeling I prefer.