Jonathan Redhead Norwich City's Cody McDonald paid tribute to strike partner Grant Holt whose hat-trick sealed an emphatic Carling Cup victory at Yeovil Town last night.

Jonathan Redhead

Norwich City's Cody McDonald paid tribute to strike partner Grant Holt whose hat-trick sealed an emphatic Carling Cup victory at Yeovil Town last night.

Former Shrewsbury Town striker Holt struck three times in the second half to help secure a 4-0 win for the Canaries - and help ease some of the pain suffered after Saturday's 7-1 drubbing by Colchester United.

Holt's treble came after City were handed the lead by Wes Hoolahan's penalty.

But the brightest point of the night for the 699 City fans who travelled to the south west must have been the burgeoning partnership between Holt and McDonald.

Holt set up McDonald for a consolation goal against Colchester, but last night it was Holt who took all the plaudits.

And McDonald, who struck the woodwork and was unlucky on several occasions at Huish Park, was quick to praise his team-mate.

“He's obviously a great player to play with and he is an easy player to play with because my main asset is to play off a big man and he does that role really well,” McDonald said.

“It just wasn't quite going for me. I hit the bar and the keeper saved a couple of long range efforts and another couple didn't quite go but thankfully Grant has saved me and bagged a hat-trick so fair play to him for that.

“It's a great result for us. We had to bounce back really well and we've come out and proved a few people wrong, that we can do it at this level.

“I'm really pleased with the way I played and the team. It's more about the team really and we've bounced back after the not so good result on Saturday.”

And McDonald revealed that boss Bryan Gunn had drilled it into his charges to try to put the Colchester game out of their minds.

“Basically he told us to put it behind us,” McDonald said.

“It's happened now. It took us all by surprise really and he said go out and play the way we can and get the results we can and we've done that.

“Hopefully, we go into Saturday's game having come here and got the result we wanted and now we just got to concentrate on each game as it comes.”

McDonald also praised the fans who made the long journey to Yeovil to witness the Canaries passage into round two of the Carling Cup.

“I actually said to the boys on the warm down how brilliant the fans had been,” he said. “No one would have been surprised if they hadn't come such a long way after Saturday, but all the best to them, we're really pleased they've come all this way and supported us.”