Kieran Dowell's creative cameo during Norwich City's latest win left head coach Daniel Farke impressed, as the midfielder presses for his first Championship start of 2021.

The 23-year-old has been on the fringes of the Canaries' success since recovering from three months out with an ankle injury in December.

However, the former Everton prospect looked much more like the attacking midfield force that City had hoped they were buying last summer, after replacing Lukas Rupp in the 62nd minute of Sunday's 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday, straight after Teemu Pukki's equaliser.

Now Dowell is hoping to have done enough to earn just his fifth start of the campaign, away at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening, where he scored 10 goals in 43 games while on loan during 2017-18.

"This is exactly what we want from our players who come from the bench, to have an impact, to deliver with energy. He was quite lively, many good situations," said Farke ahead of the trip.

"He could maybe have even done a bit better in a few situations. He had a great shooting position on his strong left foot when you perhaps expect him to hit the target.

"He had the free-kick situation when he perhaps could have found Todd (Cantwell) with a nice little pass even a bit earlier - but many good situations and I liked his energy a lot and his spirit.

"It also shows that we are definitely on the right path with him. His season was interrupted with a horrendous injury and right now from week to week he is growing more and more.

"He had a few perhaps quieter cameos after his long-term injury and I got the feeling that from game to game he was getting better.

"Definitely a good performance and also definitely what we need, we need players that come into the game and have an impact. We have done this with Mario Vrancic before, Jordan Hugill - I also liked the energy of Jordan in the last games when he came in.

"Adam Idah has delivered with goals sometimes when he's come on, so we definitely need the impact of the players who come from the bench."

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Vrancic has started as the central attacking midfielder for much of the season but Rupp has got the nod during the last two games, as the Championship leaders stretched their winning streak to eight matches.

Marco Stiepermann is fit and back in full training but yet to return to a match-day squad after two months out due to illness, with Dowell involved in the last 20 squads for league games.

The former England U21 international has made 11 appearances as a substitute during those 20 games but only started the 1-0 defeat at Watford on Boxing Day, as well as the 1-0 loss at Barnsley in the FA Cup fourth round.