Dean Smith sets sights on Norwich winning Championship as relegation confirmed

Norwich boss Dean Smith immediately set his sights on winning the Championship next season after the Canaries’ Premier League relegation was confirmed in defeat to his old club Aston Villa.

Goals from Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings – the latter cruelly set up by Norwich’s former player of the year Emi Buendia – gave the hosts a 2-0 win on Smith’s return to Villa Park, though by the time the second went in, Norwich were already heading down thanks to Burnley’s 2-1 win at Watford.

Though the relegation comes as little surprise, it was still a painful moment for Smith, who had never previously experienced the drop.

“Obviously I’m bitterly disappointed and I fully take my responsibility as well,” he said. “I think over the last four to five weeks there’s probably been an inevitability about it.

“I’m disappointed that we got relegated today because I thought our performance was good, but unfortunately over the season, the performances have not been good enough and we’ve lacked the quality required in this league…

“(The players) are very down, very dejected. I won’t know my own feeling on getting relegated until I’ve felt it over a few weeks but we have to reflect and move on very quickly now to planning to get back up.”

Smith will carry little blame for relegation, having taken over a side that took two points from their opening 10 league games and only won their first match a week before he arrived.

But Norwich will now hope the 51-year-old can do what he did for Villa and earn promotion.

The boyhood Villa fan was serenaded by all sides of Villa Park before and after the match as the home fans showed their gratitude for the job he did prior to his sacking in November.

There was also strong backing from the travelling support