David Cuffley Cody McDonald delivered right on cue as he came off the bench to end his goal drought and push Norwich City one step closer to Wembley.Striker McDonald had been on the field less than four minutes as a substitute for Chris Martin when he struck the only goal of last night's Johnstone's Paint Trophy second round tie at Gillingham.

David Cuffley

Cody McDonald delivered right on cue as he came off the bench to end his goal drought and push Norwich City one step closer to Wembley.

Striker McDonald had been on the field less than four minutes as a substitute for Chris Martin when he struck the only goal of last night's Johnstone's Paint Trophy second round tie at Gillingham.

The Canaries' 1-0 victory at Priestfield Stadium booked them a place in the area quarter-finals of the competition - the last 16 nationally.

McDonald's 66th-minute goal was his first since the opening day of the season and although he still has yet to start a first team game since the arrival of manager Paul Lambert in August, the 23-year-old hopes he has given his boss a timely reminder of his capabilities.

He said: “It's always nice to come on and score the winner, but the main thing tonight was that we got a good result.

“There's been a bit of pressure on me lately with the other boys doing so well and I hope I have given the manager a bit of a headache by coming on and scoring.

“It's always good to put pressure on other people and I hope when I get the chance again I can maybe do it again.

“I've just done what the other boys have done when they've got the chance - I've come on and scored. I need to do it personally for a bit of confidence and I hope I can push on from there.

“It's always nice to score but to come on and have quite the impact it did was nice.”

Lambert made eight changes to the side that beat Bristol Rovers 5-1 in Saturday's League One fixture and by the final whistle there had been four first team debuts - full-backs George Francomb and Rhoys Wiggins, who started the match, plus second-half substitutes David Stephens and Josh Dawkin.

Said McDonald: “The young boys like George Francomb came in and did superbly tonight. He's proved he can come in and do it at this level and I don't think it will be too long before he gets his chance again.”

McDonald's opportunist goal leaves City three rounds from a Wembley final in March and he has no doubts about the attraction of a big day out.

He said: “Chrissy Martin and Micky Spillane have told us good stories about getting to the final last season and it's something a lot of us would like to do - go and play at Wembley. I hope we can keep the run up and we can get there.

“You don't want to go and lose games like these. People don't take this competition as seriously as they should.”