Norwich City defender Adam Drury hopes the recent signing of Marc Tierney can inspire him to an even higher level of performance in the Championship run-in.

Drury has been the Canaries’ first choice left-back, injury permitting, for the last 10 years and he has no intention of giving up his position to Tierney, who was brought in during the January transfer window from Colchester United after Steve Smith failed to settle at the club.

Drury missed out on City’s dramatic win against Millwall on Tuesday night with a thigh injury, which allowed Tierney to make his first start.

And the veteran defender understands he may need to raise his game even further to win back his place.

“Anyone the gaffer brings in is competition for places – we’ve got two or three players for every position now and I think that is a reason why we are doing so well,” said Drury. “Everyone knows that if you drop off your game at all then you will find yourself out of the side – obviously you’ve got to do your best to get back in.

“You want to be in the team week in, week out – especially when the team is doing so well. You want to be part of it and feel part of it. If you can have as many players for each position as you can then it makes you play better. You know that if you don’t then you won’t get into the team.”

Drury has also been suffering from a virus but was expected to be part of manager Paul Lambert’s matchday squad for the trip to Burnley today. The former Peterborough man of course knows what it is like to be part of a side driving for promotion to the Premier League and admitted there is a similar sense of camaraderie between the players to the class of 2004. However, you won’t find Drury getting carried away, having also been with the club during some of its darkest times.

“It’s similar in that we are winning games and are high up the table but we’ve got different people in charge and different players,” added Drury, who recently signed an extension to his contract at Carrow Road until June 2012.

“The team spirit is brilliant which is always a great start and then you go from there.

“Hopefully that can take us as far as we can at the end of the season. But we’re not going to get carried away because we’ve seen how quickly things can turn around. We’ll just continue what we are doing and then see what happens.”

While City have not been at their best in recent matches they have still been able to achieve good results and Drury believes it is points, not performances, that matter at this point in the season.

“We want to play great, free-flowing attacking football but at this stage of the season it’s about getting the job done and winning games,” he said.

“Sometimes we have to scrap out results when we don’t play well; people won’t care how you play as long as you win.”

Drury has played against some of the Premier League’s finest during his time at Carrow Road and admitted it has been a crazy time in English football’s elite given the amount of money that has been splashed around in the transfer window. But Drury believes it is not the fault of the players, who cannot control the fees being set by clubs.

“It’s a tough one because people are willing to pay that money – it’s not the players’ fault as the clubs are the ones that have set the price tag,” he added. “If you are playing well in the game, it just happens to be at that sort of time when these prices are being paid.

“It’s just one of those things at the minute – maybe it will even itself out.”