Sticking to their principles will be key if Norwich City are to make a success of this season, according to head coach David Wagner.

The Canaries were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland yesterday, losing for the first time in six games and bringing an end to their impressive run of home form.

Wagner believes the source of this defeat to be the abandonment of principles he's imparted since arriving at Carrow Road in January, and has called on his players to return to them as they look for a play-off push.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, the German said: "We have to make sure that we're independent from opponents and how their setup is. We have to make ourselves independent from what we can't influence.

"We have to stick to our principles, stick to our idea, play our football, and this is not what we did (against Sunderland). This is how we'd like to go forward and what we have done in the past much better than today."

Wagner has previously criticised his side for their poor reaction to goals, but he didn't feel that weakness came into play against Tony Mowbray's side.

"We had these problems beforehand," he continued when asked about the impact of Abdoullah Ba's strike. "I was not surprised that we conceded.

"After the 15 minutes we played before the goal, we were not good in ball possession, not quick enough in moving or passing.

"Then we conceded, and then obviously it doesn't get better. We were still confident that we could turn it at half-time.

"Second half we were better, in terms of energy and intensity. The players really tried it, but without clear-cut chances and without playing in the right areas."

Focus now shifts to a meeting with Huddersfield Town - who will welcome the Canaries this midweek - as the former Terriers boss outlined: "We will speak about it and recover, because (on Wednesday) there is the next big game in front of us.

"There we'd like to be on another level performance-wise, and hopefully with the result as well."