Bristol City lost further ground in the promotion race in the Sky Bet Championship when they lost 2-0 to leaders Norwich City at Carrow Road yesterday.

Norwich picked up their sixteenth win in 25 matches with two goals from Jordan Hugill.

Hugill opened the scoring in the 36th minute with a glancing header into the far corner from a cross from Todd Cantwell following a corner.

The striker then added a second in the 76 minute from close range, just a minute after Bermudian Nahki Wells came on as a substitute for Bristol City.

“I thought we lost to a very good team, the best team we’ve played this season,” said Bristol City manager Dean Holden to the club’s website.

“There’s no doubt about that when they get to their level, as a team who have been together for a while, and you can see that in the way they move the ball.

“It’s always going to be difficult and you need some luck.

“I thought we started brightly, they had chances and Bents [Dan Bentley] made some good saves, but we stayed in the game.

“In the second half we stepped on the game, we played more in Norwich’s half with territory from corners and some balls into the box which we couldn’t get on the end of.”

He added: “The teams who have been relegated from the Premier League have all got very good squads and are well respected and I think Norwich are top of the division in that respect.

“Norwich play expansive football so they make the pitch big, they give you problems but they are open on the turnover.

“We just weren’t able to get that first or second pass off to enable us to get in.

“We came close but we didn’t execute and that’s the reason we didn’t create anything.”

The defeat leaves Bristol City 17 points behind the leaders and six adrift of the playoffs ahead of facing Millwall in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.