Tired Swans head south to the Canaries

Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers insists his side will return refreshed and raring to go from their upcoming break in Tenerife as they look to put their disappointing 3-2 home defeat at Norwich behind them.

The Canaries completed the double over the Swans with a thrilling victory at the Liberty Stadium.

After falling behind to a Danny Graham goal, the visitors scored three times in 16 minutes through a Grant Holt brace and an Anthony Pilkington strike to take control.

Graham got a goal back late on after Holt had given away a penalty, but Norwich held on as they defied a late barrage of Swansea pressure, with John Ruddy making an outstanding save from Steven Caulker’s header to secure the three points.

The defeat was only Swansea’s second at home this season and brought to an end an excellent run of results for Swansea that had included wins over Arsenal and West Brom and draws with Tottenham and Chelsea.

Rodgers and his team head to Tenerife this week for a training camp the manager hopes will give his squad a boost before they return to action against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium in two weeks’ time.

“It’s such a demanding league,” said Rodgers. “It is a wonderful journey but our plan was always to look at critical moments of the season and we felt it would be an important period through March and April and this gives us a chance to recharge our batteries and refresh our minds ahead of the last 13 games.”

Rodgers feels the defeat acts as a wake-up call that his side need to perform to their potential if they are to continue to pick up wins, and has reiterated that they still have plenty to do to beat the drop, despite their current nine-point margin.

“What I have said is we can’t afford to daydream,” he said. “There are 13 games to go and we have put ourselves in a brilliant position so I can’t have too may complaints. But we have to take each game as it comes and continue to work hard.

“We weren’t at our best against Norwich, we deserved something from the game but didn’t get it.”

“He will be able to train next week we just wanted to nurse him along, by resting him he will be fully fit for Stoke.”

Victory moved Norwich up to eighth in the table as they continued their own outstanding start to life in the top flight.

But, like Rodgers, manager Paul Lambert is refusing to look up the table, choosing only to focus on keeping his side in the Premier League.

And the Scotsman has told his players they must retain the “fear” of defeat if they are to continue to prosper.

He said: “The fear drives you on, once you lose that then it can come back and bite you so until someone tells me it’s over, only then will I believe it.

“The players know my attitude by now, that you can never rest when you have success and you have to keep on going, they have bought into it and been fantastic.

“But I am only looking at Europe in terms of going on holiday.”