PER Frandsen and Ricardo Gardner are expected to be counted out of Wanderers' Worthington Cup showdown with Bruce Rioch's Norwich City on Tuesday. The midfield duo were first half casualties in last night's 2-1 defeat at Bristol City, which left Colin Todd with a stack of problems.

Frandsen, injured in a 21st minute collision with his opposite number, Rob Edwards, made a dash to the local casualty unit during the game. X-rays eased fears that he had damaged his cheekbone but the wound needed stitching when he returned to the ground.

Gardner limped out of the game after just 10 minutes when he pulled up sharply with a hamstring pull.

"Fortunately Per hasn't suffered any damage by way of a fracture," the manager said with a measure of relief after a night of misfortune. "But with it being a head injury it's something we will have to keep an eye on and assess over the weekend.

"But at this stage I'd say both players are doubtful for Tuesday."

Todd's troubles extend way beyond selection problems for the Carrow Road cup tie. He has seen his expensively assembled, highly-rated side dramatically fall from grace after looking well on course for pole position when they swept the board in the September awards. They have since taken two points from four games, suffered two defeats in four days in a depressing week and, on current form, don't look anything like promotion material.

While it is universally agreed that they have the most talented squad outside the Premiership they have struggled of late to have anything approaching the best team.

The manager admitted after the defeat at Ashton Gate - a graveyard for Wanderers teams who have won only three league games on the West Country ground - that his team was "found wanting".

"We've got a lot of work to do," he conceded.

"We have no excuses, certainly not about the enforced changes during the game.

"The personnel changes should have been one of the reasons why players should have rolled up their sleeves and battled. But while we had effort we were untidy and it was an indisciplined performance.

"We huffed and puffed but we didn't play as a team."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.