James Husband knows he didn’t impress too many Norwich City fans in the early stage of this season but hopes he is starting to prove his doubters wrong.

The left-back was signed from Middlesbrough for around £1million in the summer, after playing just once last season. Ironically enough, that was in a 4-2 loss at Hull City in the Premier League, who City take on at Carrow Road tomorrow.

The 23-year-old lost his starting role to Marco Stiepermann during September, as the fortunes of Daniel Farke’s team improved markedly, but has forced his way back in – with the help of Stiepermann’s groin injury.

“I’m enjoying it, I’ve not played for a year, so it almost takes a little while to get going again Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday,” said Husband. “I took a little bit of stick to start with but I feel more comfortable in my surroundings. It’s part and parcel of becoming a footballer that you get stick when you’re not performing to the best of your ability.

“If you ask any footballer, they back themselves all the way, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the position they are.

“People are not in this position because they’ve failed, time and time again they’ve proved people wrong, so that’s basically what I have tried to do.”

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One of his best performances came at Boro, playing all of a 1-0 win and surviving a tough test against the lightning-quick Adama Traore.

“You lot won’t have seen that before but I did that every day at Boro for a year and it wasn’t nice!” Husband joked about his former team-mate.

“I was aware of what was coming. I was trying to tell the boys that he’s fast, but like, really, really fast and they were like ‘sure’ but when they got out there (they saw) he is a strong and powerful boy. But at the end of the day we kept them to no goals, so you can’t complain.”

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Now the Doncaster Rovers academy product has his sights set on another tough encounter, against Hull on Saturday afternoon.

“They’re a top side that have come down from the Premier League,” he added. “Yeah the results have been a bit hit and miss but they are well capable – they’ve smashed six past Birmingham. So we’ve got to be respectful and turn up on the day and try to be the best we can be.”