After the high of a long-awaited East Anglian derby win at Carrow Road last Saturday, Town came back down to earth with a flat 2-0 defeat at relegation fighting Portsmouth on Tuesday night.
It leaves Kieran McKenna’s men still needing 10 points from their remaining five games to be mathematically sure of automatic promotion back to the Premier League, with two of those matches against top-two rivals Boro and Southampton.
“Obviously it was clear for everyone to see that it was a disappointing performance,” said Walton, speaking after a nine-game unbeaten run came to an end at Fratton Park.
“But you’re going to have them in a season and you’re going to have them in blocks of games. We’ve obviously not been beaten for a while.
“I think it would probably have been naive to think it was going to be plain sailing going into the last eight games. We just need to put up a fight and go onto the next one with full confidence and full belief.
“There are always going to bumps in the road, that’s one tonight, but we’re looking forward to Sunday now for another big game in the Championship. We need to go into it with character and belief.”
Reflecting on the Portsmouth defeat, both goals conceded in a two minute spell just before half-time, Walton said: “The goals against were not good enough enough from our point of view. It’s just sloppy moments that cost us tonight.
“On the night there wasn’t much in the game. I don’t think they’ve carved us open or we’ve carved them open. It’s the small details in games – coming out on top in all the duels, winning second balls – that make a massive difference and we probably came up short on those.”
Asked if he felt the performance was a hangover from the Norwich win, he added: “I don’t think so. Everyone enjoyed Saturday, it was a good team performance and we wanted to replicate that tonight. We didn’t, that’s disappointing, but it’s onto Sunday now.”