David Cuffley Manager Paul Lambert refused to get carried away after his Norwich City side moved to the fringe of the play-off places in League One with another Carrow Road goal rush.

David Cuffley

Manager Paul Lambert refused to get carried away after his Norwich City side moved to the fringe of the play-off places in League One with another Carrow Road goal rush.

The 5-1 victory over Bristol Rovers took the Canaries above Huddersfield and Oldham into seventh place in the table, just two points adrift of sixth-placed Swindon.

But Lambert has been wary until now of talking up his team's promotion chances, conscious that less than a quarter of the season has been played, and concerned at what he sees as a lack of depth in the squad.

He said: “You're only in October. You win nothing in October. It's May when you think maybe you might go up, but whether we are we don't know.

“My view of the squad is it's not big enough and we have to try to get a couple of lads in to give us a hand.”

Lambert wants to be certain, however, that any potential signings are committed to Norwich after controversy over last season's string of loan recruits.

He said: “If I can get a couple of loans in and I'm going to sign them in January, then you do, but I'm not going to put the club in the trouble it's been before. If 17 came in - and I don't know the 17 lads who were already here - I can bet you anything you want, would they really give a jot about Norwich? No.

“So I'm not going down that type of road. Give us lads that want to play for the club, and have got a desire to play for it.”

Though City won with style against Rovers, Lambert said results were the key thing.

He said: “Every game is brilliant to win. If you can do it with a bit of finesse, great, but if you can't, just win the game.

“I've been in the game long enough to think that you can play brilliantly all you want, but unless you win the game, it doesn't really matter. The game's all about winning.

“I'm pretty sure if we'd played cracking football and we'd lost, you'd be asking me different questions. My view on it is just try to win as many games as you can.”

Because of that, he said he could not even relax when City were 4-1 ahead.

He said: “The job's never done. I've seen games being turned round on their head. You're always a bit wary, no matter how good we were, Bristol Rovers, who are there on merit, could be equally dangerous. So I'm never quite at ease until there's about 30 seconds to go and we're 5-1 up - then I relax a little.

“You're never going to dominate a game for 90 minutes. They're not going to let you play the way you want to play.”

Lambert gave 18-year-old goalkeeper Declan Rudd his third outing in eight days - his second successive start - and so far the youngster has been beaten only by two penalties.

He said: “It was a pretty easy decision because of the way Declan has been playing. I think when you're young and you get a chance, and you wait your time and get thrown in, you can either go one way or the other. He's taken it. I always think you earn the right to be in the side. So if you've earned the right and you do well, it's up to you to stay in it.”