Jonathan Redhead Norwich City's Matty Pattison wants to score at least ten goals this season and is calling on his team mates to be “ruthless” with goalscoring chances as City head into the crucial festive period.

Jonathan Redhead

Norwich City's Matty Pattison wants to score at least ten goals this season and is calling on his team mates to be “ruthless” with goalscoring chances as City head into the crucial festive period.

After failing to score in his first 42 games for the Canaries the midfielder finally opened his account against Nottingham Forest six games ago before finding the net against Crystal Palace and then, famously, scoring the second goal in the 2-0 derby victory over Ipswich Town.

Now the South African is keen to find his name, and those of his team mates, on the score sheet more often to help fire City out of their current relegation peril and into the top half of the Coca-Cola Championship.

And despite missing a decent headed opportunity to put the Canaries in front against Reading last weekend, Pattison believes Glenn Roeder's current tactics will give him the chance to score plenty between now and May.

“It'd be nice to get near to double figures around the 10, 12 mark,” the 22-year-old said.

“I'd be happy with eight to ten goals this season, but it's been going well for me, and hopefully I can keep getting opportunities as well.

“I'm going into most games now and getting at least one or two chances so if I can put them away I'll get my tally up.

“The gaffer's given me licence to get forward a lot more now, especially after I scored my first one, because obvious I score by getting into the box and helping Leroy (Lita) out and supporting so he's obviously seen that and given me more of a licence to get forward. It's good and hopefully I can keep playing in that sort of position and getting more chances.

“We've got to be more ruthless in front of goal and put away our chances, we could have been two up in the first 20 minutes at Reading and I was one of the ones who missed our best chances.

“We've got to just look to be putting them away. It seems like if another team gets those opportunities against us they put them away, so we've got to be more ruthless in front of goal.”

With two defeats in the last two away games, Pattison is looking forward to playing in front of the Carrow Road faithful again this weekend when struggling Charlton Athletic, without a win in 13 games, are the visitors.

“Obviously the fans should be looking forward to watching us after the last home game against Ipswich,” Pattison said.

“It was a good performance for them and the last two games were good performances as well it's just conceding some silly goals and that.

“Performances in general have been good so hopefully we can put on a good one and keep tight at the back and get some goals as well.

“I watched their game (a 2-2 draw with Derby on Monday night) and it looked like they were going to get the three points so for us it was good that they didn't, but we shouldn't really be worrying about that at this stage of the season.

“We know we've got enough to climb the table and Charlton should just be another home game to get three points.

It's currently the halfway stage in the campaign and the former Newcastle United player said the Canaries need to reflect on what has gone wrong - and right - in a disappointing season to date.

“We have to look at the first half of the season and see what's gone right and what's gone wrong,” Pattison said. “You can't just put it in the back of your mind because we've conceded some goals that we shouldn't have and we've given away silly penalties sometimes as well.

“You've got to look at those sorts of things and put them right for the next part of the season and hopefully we get a bit more luck, because I don't think we've had the best of luck.

“Maybe with a bit more luck and referees a bit more on our side, maybe we can get the luck we need.

Like all of their Championship rivals, City face a hectic Christmas schedule with Charlton on Saturday, a Boxing Day game at Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest at home on December 28.

And Pattison says the games can take their toll on everyone.

“You still enjoy the games as they come thick and first because it gives you the opportunity when you don't have such a good performance to get that out of your system straight away, more or less in two or three days,” he said.

“But it's hard work. It's hard on your legs as well, I mean the last week was its three games in a week and you need a tough squad so hopefully we can get all our injured players back and hopefully we can all be fit for the busy period.

“You've got to get on with it. Being a footballer has got some many advantages so you've got to take a bit of disadvantage sometimes.

“I'm not sure what's happening Christmas Day yet. I know we'll have to travel down to Crystal Palace in the night time but nothing's been said yet so it's a bit of a secret.

“Fingers crossed though.”