Sky Bet Championship: Norwich boss reveals half-time "rocket" helps side earn 4-2 win at Cardiff

Norwich manager Neil Adams admits he had to give his side a "rocket" at half-time after they recovered from two goals down to beat Cardiff 4-2 in the Sky Bet Championship.

The Canaries, unbeaten since their opening day defeat at Wolves, were awful during the first half and deservedly trailed to goals from Joe Ralls and Aron Gunnarsson.

But quickfire strikes from Martin Olsson and Wes Hoolahan levelled matters early in the second half, before Michael Turner and substitute Cameron Jerome finished the job.

Such an outcome had looked highly unlikely as Cardiff, challenged to prove their title credentials by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, raced out of the traps.

But Adams was delighted with the response of his players as they climbed up to second in the table.

"That's the first time I have had to get angry with them," said the Canaries boss.

"They had to have the rocket at half-time as the first-half performance was nowhere near good enough, and it was justified by the second half performance.

"I told the players from the off I will take defeats and draws but only if we go about it in the right way - and that first half was nowhere near good enough.

"But then we scored four goals and it could have been a few more.

"The lads have been fantastic apart from those first 45 minutes. I cannot give them enough credit as they dug themselves out of the mess."

Adams also hailed Jerome after the striker's half-time introduction swung the game in Norwich's favour, giving the visitors a focal point up front they had lacked.

He said: "Cameron was outstanding, he was a constant threat and the goal was no more than he deserved.

"Not that Kyle Lafferty did not do well, but he was on a booking and had been warned and we knew if we went down to 10 men it was game over. But Cameron made a real impact."

Solskjaer was every bit as shaken as Adams was elated as his side, among the pre-season title favourites, slipped to 15th in the early going.

The Cardiff boss said: "You could say it was our best 45 minutes in the first half, and the second was our worst.

"This league is about consistency and we did not have that today.

"We had a great chance early in the second half when (John) Ruddy saved from (Federico) Macheda's volley and then they scored two quick goals and we could not find an answer.

"We stopped playing. We did not get the second balls, we did not move the ball quickly enough and these are simple things you have to do.

"Cameron Jerome made a huge difference for them and the little things went against us.

"But these sides will both be near the top of the table at the end of the season.

"It was Jekyll and Hyde stuff. If we went home at half-time you would have thought we were in good form. In the second half you would have thought we were struggling."