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City skipper Hanley enjoyed shutting up the Burnley boo boys with FA Cup goal
Norwich City captain Grant Hanley celebrates scoring at Burnley in the FA Cup Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
Becoming the first defender to score a goal for Norwich City this season had an added satisfaction for captain Grant Hanley.
The Scotland international had been booed by Burnley fans before and during the Canaries' 2-1 win at Turf Moor in the FA Cup fourth round, having made 200 appearances for the Clarets' local rivals Blackburn earlier in his career.
It was also the 28-year-old's first goal since August 2018, due to his injury issues since then, with the Scot saying: "It's been a while and to score in front of fans who had given me a bit of stick, it was nice."
Hanley's bigger concern was the defence finally chipping in with a goal, with his header from an excellent Mario Vrancic free-kick opening the scoring in the 51st minute.
"It's something that we should do better, for set-plays, with the quality that we've got," he continued. "Look at Mario's delivery, it's second to none and we should be doing better.
"It's nice to get a start and hopefully we can be chipping in with more."
The victory sealed a place in the fifth round for just the second time in 13 seasons for City, providing some welcome confidence boosts for the battle against Premier League relegation.
Grant Hanley's thumping header set Norwich City on the way to a 2-1 FA Cup fourth round win at Burnley Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images - Credit: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd
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"Especially when you get into the later rounds, it's a good feeling and at this stage of the season it gives you a bit of confidence to kick on," Hanley said of the FA Cup.
"We want to go as far as we can, that's the way it is and the most important thing is we've set our standards and whatever we're in, we're going to give our all."
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The success followed a 1-0 home win over Bournemouth and an unfortunate 2-1 loss at Tottenham in the top flight and City's skipper is pleased with the performance levels shown recently.
"We set our standards every day," Hanley concluded. "It doesn't matter if we're in training, in the league or in the cup, we've got our standards and that's what we need to meet and what we expect of ourselves.
"I think the best thing from today is that we can take confidence but we can also take confidence in our character, because we came here in the league and whether it was inexperience, I don't want to say it, but we got bullied a wee bit (in a 2-0 loss).
"Today we showed up and we won our individual battles, to play our football, that was the biggest thing for me. We earned our right to play and we went on and played our style of football and dominated the game."
