CHRIS LAKEY Canaries keeper David Marshall says he will be fit and ready to take his place between the posts for the Carling Cup tie at Rochdale. Marshall was on the receiving end of an early greeting from Hull veteran Dean Windass at the weekend, but says there are no long-lasting effects.

CHRIS LAKEY

Canaries keeper David Marshall says he will be fit and ready to take his place between the posts for the Carling Cup tie at Rochdale.

Marshall was on the receiving end of an early greeting from Hull veteran Dean Windass at the weekend, but says there are no long-lasting effects.

“It's not a problem at all, no bother,” said Marshall.

It's not as if the Scottish keeper wasn't expecting the Windass welcome.

“He just did me in the hip,” he said. “We knew what he was like, we've watched the videos, and Dean played up in Scotland so I knew what kind of team Hull would be.

“I'm used to it up the road anyway, it's similar up in Scotland, so I just have to get no with it.”

While Marshall is ready for the cup trip, manager Peter Grant may be a little more guarded and could be tempted to give Marshall a rest and give second-choice Matty Gilks a debut against his former club.

“It's possible - if it affects his kicking it will be,” said Grant. “It is difficult because he wants to play all the games - he was out for a big part of last season, so the guys want to play and if they're fit they want to be involved, they don't want to be rested.”

Grant was unhappy that Windass wasn't punished for his challenge on Marshall.

“The referees don't see that it happened at Preston as well,” Grant said. “That's not a foul and then they go and give silly free-kicks for absolutely nothing.

“The boy smashed him right on the hip - everybody in the stadium could see it. Dean's experience told him, smash the keeper on the first cross, so that's what he's done. If that's the case that's like saying to an outfield player go and smash the winger on his first touch - guarantee he'll get booked. But a striker going into a goalkeeper? No, that's your first warning.

“Dean used his experience but I thought the ref should have shown his experience as well and booked him.”

Marshall was happy to see that the Canaries stood up to anything Hull could throw at them physically - but disappointed with the end result.

“I thought we stood up to that in the first half, which you need to do here, and when we went to one each I thought we had a right good chance, but bad defending cost us in the end,” he said.

“It was a disappointing result - we thought before the game we could come here and get the points and during the game we could get back in it because we were playing well. It was a bad goal to lose, the second one, and we were disappointed.”

Marshall saw a change in the back line, with Adam Drury out with a groin injury, replaced by new signing from Rangers, Ian Murray. It was a tough debut, but Marshall knows enough about his fellow Scot to predict a bright future.

“I've been involved in a few Scotland squads with him,” he said. “I was speaking to him after the game and it is difficult for him to come in because he hasn't played competitively since the end of last season, so to do the 90 minutes must have been a hard shift.

“I think he did all right and can only get better when he gets his fitness. As soon as he gets his match fitness up I think he will be a good addition.”