Danny Batth: Wolves didn't deserve defeat at Norwich

After a slow start Paul Lambert's team improved as the game went on, before Carl Ikeme's red card ended any hopes of them winning the game.

Batth said it was having to take something special to beat confident Wolves at the moment, referring to Jonny Howson's 25-yard strike which smacked off the bar and fell to Steven Naismith, who made it 1-0.

"I felt again it took something special to beat us – Howson's hit the ball from distance and it's one that could have gone anywhere," Batth said.

"It takes that sort of thing to beat us at the moment. We're all confident.

"The first 20 minutes wasn't good enough – I thought we were slow out the traps.

"And then we got back into it and came out flying in the second half.

"We had Norwich on the ropes. There were chances and waves of attack and we were confident we'd go on and win in.

"It's a defeat we didn't feel we deserved.

"We showed willing with 10 men. We felt we were good enough to come here and get at least a draw.

"Their first goal was out of the blue, after that I think the rest is dubious.

"We won't be too downbeat. On another day with decisions going our way we could have come away with a win.

"We felt Norwich were wobbling. But you don't always get what you deserve.

"There was no lack of effort. Even with the predicament we were in at the end we were still causing problems."

Ikeme was sent off for pushing Wes Hoolahan after the player appeared to dive to win a penalty in the 75th minute.

Batth said the keeper had nothing to apologise to his team-mates for.

"He hasn't had to say anything to us," Batth added. "We've just looked at the video and made our own judgement. To come away losing 3-1 doesn't tell the story."

The defeat leaves Wolves 18th in the Championship table, seven points clear of the bottom three and a distant 13 off the play-offs.

Centre-half Batth said he still felt Wolves could have a productive second half to the season.

"We're ambitious," the captain added.

"The position we're in now... we've been in good form and perhaps haven't had the luck of the draw with a few results where it could have pushed us further up the table.

"But we're ambitious and we still want to do something this year."