Much like August, Norwich City are set to a painful international break – and Ivo Pinto is hoping for a similar result on the other side.
Some old habits reappeared as Daniel Farke’s Canaries slipped to a 2-1 defeat at struggling Bolton, leaving City with two weeks to think about their current three-game losing streak.
Of course, similar pain following the 4-0 thrashing at The Den instigated a nine-game – and Pinto would love for history to repeat itself.
“It hurts a lot,” he acknowledged. “If I have a game in two days, I will be sad but tomorrow I will already be thinking about the next game. With two weeks off, I’m just sad and it hurts. It hurts.
“But it is what it is. We made a fantastic run and now everything changes, but we have the same players, the same squad and the same quality to make it go in the right direction. So we just need to keep believing and stay together.
“It was two pretty hard weeks, these four games since Ipswich. It was hard to play, many games, many minutes – and the results were not coming.
“So August is a good example we need to take on. After Millwall, everything seemed to be lost and we worked, we stuck together as we should do now, and when we came back we made a fantastic run.
“I hope we can do it again and I think we have everything we need to do it again.
“It’s up to us to work even hard and start with the simple things: not conceding easy goals like we have, and trying to score more.
“Three bad games put us in a bad position, but three games can put us back on track. So we will work for that, for sure.”
Pinto’s pain won’t just come from defeat. The Portuguese defender sported a white face mask at Bolton to protect his broken nose, suffered in the midweek home defeat to Championship leaders Wolves.
And the mask is set to return when City step out next, for Barnsley’s visit on Saturday, November 18.
“It’s very sore – I can feel my heart pumping,” admitted Pinto. “I just broke my nose in the last game, but I felt it was best to play. It was broken so maybe that didn’t make a lot of sense, but the mask protected me a little bit and I will need a new one because I need surgery on it – and I’ll need a new mask to keep playing.
“I don’t want to lose any games. I want to help the team and to give something to these supporters that here again, they came in their large numbers and they are very important for us.
“I was always going to play. I’d say even with a broken leg, I will play. I want to help the team in as many games as I can.
“Unfortunately I’ve had to miss a few games before and it was not very good for me. I was very sad. So every time I can play, even with a pain or something, I will play to help the team.
“The surgery will be next week, but I will play the next game.”
• For the latest Norwich City news and opinion follow Michael Bailey on the following channels…
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