David Cuffley Winger Anthony McNamee is confident he will get his chance for an extended run in the Norwich City first team sooner or later - after helping transform their fortunes for the second home match in a row.

David Cuffley

Winger Anthony McNamee is confident he will get his chance for an extended run in the Norwich City first team sooner or later - after helping transform their fortunes for the second home match in a row.

McNamee came off the bench to play a key part in both goals as the Canaries hit back to beat Barnsley 2-1 at Carrow Road and stay joint sixth in the Championship.

Three weeks after his cross led to the own goal by Ashley Williams that sparked a 2-0 home win against Swansea, the livewire substitute induced another defensive error as Barnsley centre-back Stephen Foster headed into his own net for City's 70th-minute equaliser. Ten minutes later, the 26-year-old delivered the cross that led to Chris Martin's winning goal.

For McNamee, it was all in a day's work.

He said: “I'm a winger that likes to run at people. That's what I love doing. That's why I play football because I enjoy running at players and taking players on and getting in crosses, so it's just a normal day's job for me. With the first cross, I know Grant Holt is always in the mix so I was thinking if I could just miss the 'keeper out, Holty's hungry for goals and he will find the ball instead of me finding him.

“The guy just got in there first.

“For the second, I crossed it in, it got cleared out and Chrissy Martin did the rest.”

McNamee has started just seven first team games in nearly 10 months with City since signing from Swindon, and all five of his appearances this season have come as a substitute.

He said: “That's football. It's hard because you want your team to do well. You don't want them to lose so you can come and play. You want them to win every game. So any chance I get I have to do well.

“There are 41 games left so I'm going to get my chance somewhere. I'll just have to take it when I do get the chance. I just have to be patient.”

With 10 points from the first five games, the Canaries are on the heels of the early leaders in the Championship - and McNamee believes they should set their sights on nothing less than promotion.

He said: “We've come from League One but Norwich is a big club so we should be in the top half of the Championship easily. The club should not have been relegated the season before last. We're expected to do well.

“There is a reason we won League One, and now it's time to push on again and try to win this league.

“I just want to be playing and hopefully cement myself in the team and keep doing well, so we can get promoted.

“I've loved every minute of it - the facilities, the coaching staff, the management, the players here. We have a great team spirit, so good things should be happening here at Norwich.”

Manager Paul Lambert came up trumps again with the timing of McNamee's introduction, but argued that City were beginning to get on top when he made the change.

He said: “I thought we were on the ascendancy anyway. I just thought we needed that bit of spark, which he provided. Mac is what you see - when he gets the ball he gets people off their seats. He was terrific for the goal and made things happen when he came on. The one thing about Mac is he can cross it with either foot. He's terrific at a dead-ball and when he gets a run at you in a one on one, because of the way he plays the game, he's very hard to mark, especially in the last third of the pitch.

“He's never once grumbled about not playing - everybody sees the team winning and it's hard to get in. But I think they're all as important as each other.”