Kennedy hopes to return favour for fans

City's impressive new centre-back John Kennedy returns to the team this afternoon determined to give the home fans something to cheer about.

The Canaries are back in senior action at Carrow Road for the first time for 16 weeks, but their appetites haven't exactly been whetted by two defeats in the first seven days of the new campaign.

Kennedy, on loan from Celtic until the end of the year, is hoping his first appearance in front of a packed home crowd helps change all that.

“The fans are always great so I think we need to return the favour and get results which make them happy - hopefully tomorrow we can do that,” said Kennedy, who celebrates his 25th birthday on Monday.

Kennedy missed the midweek Carling Cup defeat at MK Dons, with manager Glenn Roeder mindful of the fact that the opener at Coventry four days earlier had been his first game since last November, when he damaged knee ligaments in Celtic's Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

“I'm fine, it was just a bit of tiredness after the game,” he said. “The manager thought it would be best to leave me for that game so I was fit for Blackpool. I actually felt okay come Tuesday but it was the manager's decision so I have to respect that, but I feel fresh and looking forward to Blackpool.

“It's all about playing competitive games. It's good playing the friendlies and stuff, but at the end of the day you earn your money when it matters.

Kennedy's first week as a Norwich player hasn't been the best as far as results are concerned, but he believes the signs are good.

“I think we can take some positives,” he said. “We are playing well enough but not finishing our chances. We have to put that right and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.”