Dean Smith wants Norwich City’s second half FA Cup fightback in Wednesday night's 2-1 defeat to Liverpool to set them up for a crunch Premier League meeting with Brentford.

Smith felt Liverpool were in the comfort zone after a ‘soft’ opening goal at Anfield but demanded a response for the 1,200 travelling fans who made the trek to Merseyside.

Lukas Rupp’s late reply and numerous other chances ensured it was no serene passage to the quarter-finals for Jurgen Klopp’s squad.

“We wanted to be aggressive and on the front foot and make it a cup tie,” he said. “Our fans have travelled in their numbers, 1,200 or so, and we said to the players we have to go and put in a display for them.

"A game kicking off at 8:15pm and they won’t get home before 3am or 4am in the morning.

"I felt we did that and we ended up with four or five good chances. It is very rare you can say that against Liverpool.

“I thought the first 20 minutes we asked some questions, they had more possession. But the goal was so soft, and they became comfortable and we lost a little bit of faith, but we rallied and put in a much better second half performance.

"People have spoken about our lack of goals but you have seen we have created that many chances against an unbelievable football team. If we can do that against Liverpool, we can do it against other teams.”

Takumi Minamino’s first half brace put the Canaries on the back foot.

“We gave a really soft first goal away. It is frustrating,” said Smith. “We knew it was a tough task coming to Anfield against a team who rarely get beaten.

"They put us under pressure with a few corners and the second goal is a good strike. He has hit across the top of it and it clips the post and goes in. There is not an awful lot I felt we could do about that.

“But we had a big chance with Teemu (Pukki) in the first half. Sarge (Josh Sargent) has had two chances, where he flashed one wide of the post and a header. Ruppy scores.

"Jonny Rowe had one that Alisson saved. We had to go and ask serious questions because I didn’t want this game to run away from us at Anfield with the quality they have got.

"We had to change a couple of things at half-time because we felt they were getting too much comfortable possession, certainly around the half way line.”

Max Aarons and Brandon Williams stayed in Norfolk to rest knocks but Smith confirmed both are set to train at Colney on Thursday ahead of the Bees’ weekend league visit