Todd Cantwell is convinced good times are ahead for Norwich City.

Cantwell returned from a three-game absence and was an integral part of a dominant display during a 1-0 home win over Birmingham on Tuesday, after Daniel Farke had initially left him out of the game at Bournemouth last month due to transfer window distractions.

It was Mario Vrancic scoring the deserved winner in the 87th minute, after combining with fellow substitute Adam Idah, during a game in which City had an eye-catching 73 percent of possession against a defensive visiting team.

“It’s definitely a challenge,” Cantwell said of the Canaries adjusting to being favourites for most games after relegation. “It’s different because last year we weren’t allowed to have that amount of the ball.

“I think we’ve learned a lot from last year and how it felt to not have the ball. I think everyone in that changing room wants to play the same way and that’s why it works.

“But ultimately I think a lot of teams will do that this season. Whether they choose to or not, I think it’s going to be difficult for other teams because we do keep the ball and when we’re at it, I don’t think there’s many teams that can get close to it.

“So we need to learn to punish teams. If we score early in that game then it’s finished by half-time.

“We did make a lot of chances. If we weren’t making anything I’d say ‘possession for what?’, but we’re definitely, definitely moving in the right direction.”

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Winning back-to-back games for the first time since winning the title at Aston Villa in May 2019 pushed Farke’s team up to seventh ahead of Wednesday night’s Championship action.

Newly-promoted Wycombe, who are yet to earn a point and have scored just once in their opening six games, head for Norfolk on Saturday and Cantwell believes the Norwich players are relishing a busy spell.

“It’s a top changing room, it really is,” Cantwell continued, speaking to City’s official website. “The new lads have come in, everyone gets on and I think when everyone gets on you want to work for each other, you can sense that when we’re out there.

“But ultimately the football we were playing is exactly how we want to play and although we didn’t score all of the chances that we made, if we’ve got the ball they can’t score.

“So we can definitely take lot from that.”

The England Under-21 international, who was linked with Leeds during the transfer window after scoring six Premier League goals last season, had three good chances which he couldn’t convert and also saw a goal ruled out for offside.

“Personally I demand a lot more from myself,” he added. “It was definitely a game to tune up the levels.

“I didn’t feel as sharp as I should but you need to play. It’s my first game in a while and I was just happy to be back out there to be honest.”