David Wagner will focus on addressing the issues with his under-performing Norwich City side for the upcoming midweek trip to QPR, rather than hide behind excuses for Friday’s 5-1 Championship capitulation at Middlesbrough.

Wagner, his coaches and players were incensed at the manner of Boro’s second goal, with Sam McCallum lying injured in the home half.

Referee Josh Smith restarted the game after a crunching challenge left the full back on the floor, and the home side cashed in with a sweeping move down McCallum’s vacant flank finished by Hayden Hackney.

Injury-hit City had earlier put the ball out of play for former Aston Villa loanee Aaron Ramsey to get treatment on the ankle injury that saw him depart before the half-hour mark.

Max Aarons was later felled inside the Boro penalty box in the second half, in another incident that went against the Canaries, but Wagner dismissed any hard luck stories.

“I don’t like to speak about it, we lost 5-1,” he said. “And I think if I now explain the (McCallum) situation, everybody has seen it. About 10 minutes earlier the referee stops the game and we put the ball out of play so that he can get assessed.

“And in that situation this wasn’t the case. But if I explain it looks like an excuse. And I don’t like to search for excuses.

“The penalty incident (on Aarons) was a clear and obvious penalty. I think everybody knows this. But this is not how I like to behave.

“We were defensively, individually, in too many situations not focused and not concentrated enough. You have to defend your goal with everything, and we let the opponent play past us too easily.

“We didn’t make the challenges or win the battles you have to do in dangerous areas.