Delia Smith's latest Norwich City rant ahead of Preston North End's visit to Carrow Road

The mood around Norwich City may have perked up after Adam Idah's 95th minute winner at Bristol City - but it was only last week the Carrow Road atmosphere came in for criticism from majority shareholder Delia Smith.

Preston North End make the long trek to Norfolk this weekend, as Ryan Lowe's team return to action and look to get bounce back from three successive defeats. Preston are on a poor run of form but head into the match in eighth spot, while Norwich are two points worse off in 13th.

And judging by the comments of Smith, Saturday's hosts have endured a challenging first 19 games to the season. David Wagner's side have won eight, drawn two and lost nine matches, but the comeback victory at Ashton Gate was Norwich's third win in four. With the Canaries losing four home games though, Smith - who delivered a famous on-field speech in 2008 - called upon the Carrow Road faithful to play a greater part.

"If we were to support our team a bit louder and a bit better, they might feel more confident than they do with all the booing," said Smith. The majority are not impatient, the majority understand the hard work that goes into it, what happens behind the scenes and all of that. I forgive them, because they are passionate people, but they have no idea. They have no idea what goes into keeping a football club going [as] self-funding."

Smith also said: "I feel really, really strongly that if I was a footballer and walked out on the pitch with all that negativity, I wouldn’t be able to play. I wouldn’t. I remember the days when we used to go to Portsmouth and they would cheer their team whether they were losing 6-0 or winning. They would be cheering and cheering and driving their team on.

"I think we need the drummer back. We need the drummer back. To have that negativity, which all the good people who are supporters get overwhelmed by - the boo boys who have the loudest voices. Okay, we have 20pc of whingers and 80pc of fantastic supporters – I love them all dearly. It is a bit like church mice sometimes – there isn’t a sound anywhere."