Norwich keeper David Marshall warns Championship relegation rivals Barnsley the Canaries will bounce back from the club's latest Reading body blow against Charlton on Sunday.

Norwich keeper David Marshall warns Championship relegation rivals Barnsley the Canaries will bounce back from the club's latest Reading body blow against Charlton on Sunday.

The Scottish international knows it is now or never if the current generation are to avoid consigning the club to League One after a 49 year stay in the top two divisions. City must beat Charlton and rely on Barnsley losing at Plymouth to complete a Championship great escape.

“It's not going to be a problem to lift ourselves,” said Marshall, after Reading striker Shane Long's brace sunk City. “We have to win at Charlton and hope Barnsley get beaten. It's not over - stranger things have happened so there will be no problem the boys getting themselves up for it. We just have to win to give ourselves a chance. All we can do is win our game and hope.”

Marshall admitted Norwich got exactly what they deserved on Monday after a fourth defeat in the last five left them stuck in the drop zone.

“We never really looked like scoring,” he said. “The fans deserve better and we hoped to win the game, but we never played well enough to win it so it was a disappointing night. We expected to at least have chances but I don't think we've made (Marcus) Hahnemann work at all so that's probably the most disappointing thing about the night.

“It's not through lack of effort by the boys. It's not as if we chucked in the towel. We kept going but it's hard. I think the first goal flattened us. But to be fair to Reading, they're a good team, one of the best in the division.”

Marshall conceded City's below par display against the Royals typified the club's wretched league campaign.

“It's not just down to this game. It's a long season so you cannot just look at that,” he said. “It's not just on one performance. This game won't relegate us. We've had 45 games up to now and we have one more on Sunday. We've got to look at that as a whole.”

The ex-Celtic stopper praised home supporters who stayed for the squad's post-match lap of the pitch.

“It's the first time I've had to do something like that in the position we're in,” he said. “You can understand the people who left but a lot of people stayed to clap. The fans have been brilliant all season. We're getting 25,000 close to every home game and they're not just coming here and sitting, they're coming here and giving us the support.”

City skipper Gary Doherty sounded a defiant note ahead of City's last day trip to The Valley.

“It's not over yet, we have to go to Charlton and look after our own result, get a victory and hope Plymouth can do us a favour,” he said. “They'll be playing at home so they'll be going flat out in front of their home fans and we have to hope Barnsley can go there and slip up. Obviously we're all down in the dumps now, but it's not inconceivable for Barnsley to lose to Plymouth and us to win at Charlton. That's what we need to keeping thinking now over these next few days.

“First half we played okay and we created some chances. The second half came, there were two terrific headers from their lad and we've lost the game. They put in two terrific crosses for the lad and they played really well - they've got terrific strength in depth when they're bringing on players like Stephen Hunt, and have Kevin Doyle on the bench. They've got a great squad of players and that was evident.”