Norwich boss Alex Neil pleased with tactical switch against Swansea

Alex Neil revealed he instructed his Norwich side to play a different way in their 1-0 win over Swansea City.

Jonny Howson's 71st-minute header gave Norwich the points despite Swansea having the majority of the possession in a game of few chances at Carrow Road.

That paucity of attacking play was a deliberate strategy on Norwich's part, with manager Neil setting his team out with the remit to collect their first Premier League clean sheet of the season.

"We opted for a different approach today and it worked for us," said Neil, whose side are now four points ahead of the division's bottom two. "We weren't keeping clean sheets despite playing well so we used a different tactic.

"It worked for us - we had the best opportunities in the game and we achieved what we set out to achieve before the game.

"At this point of the season it is all about points rather than performances and I think we deserved the points.

"The whole thing we tried to do today was keep a clean sheet and then hopefully have enough quality to get a goal at the other end.

"It's hard to get that balance right without going ultra-defensive but when we got the goal we stayed relativity solid and carried a threat so we struck that balance well in the second half.

"It's pleasing because we've put a bit of a gap between ourselves and the teams at the bottom and this isn't one of our best performances but it's a win so we take it and move on."