Michael Bailey Norwich City's on-loan defender Russell Martin is so good, his new team-mates have named him twice. The right-back signed from Peterborough United last month until the new year, and neatly fitted into a Canaries squad that already included Darel Russell and Chris Martin.

Michael Bailey

Norwich City's on-loan defender Russell Martin is so good, his new team-mates have named him twice.

The right-back signed from Peterborough United last month until the new year, and neatly fitted into a Canaries squad that already included Darel Russell and Chris Martin.

And the defended admitted it has been confusing at times on the training pitches at Colney.

“Darel Russell gets called Rusty, which is what I was called down the road, so every time someone calls Russell Rusty I'm looking round, but it's for Darel - so at the minute I'm just Russell Russell, so we just have to work out who's talking to who,” said Martin, who made his full City debut in the win at Southend before turning out at Carrow Road for the first time last weekend, marked with a 2-0 win over Oldham.

“Playing at Carrow Road was everything I thought it would be. The crowd was fantastic, it's a great pitch to play on and we played well - especially the first half - so it was a good home debut for me and I really enjoyed it.

“I've settled in quickly, the lads have made me feel really welcome. I'm in a hotel at the minute but moving in somewhere next week. The training's been really good, really fresh, and it's just good to come out and get a new start.”

Martin was allowed to leave by new United manager Mark Cooper, having captained Posh to automatic promotion from League One last season.

Although he has made two appearances in a yellow shirt, the full-back - who is hoping to make his loan move permanent after January 4 - already sees enough in the Norwich squad to earn another top two finish.

“Definitely; I had a couple of lads from Peterborough ask me the same question when I spoke to them,” said Martin. “We did well last year, but this team, from playing in it a couple of games, would've been right up there last year.

“This year the league is a bit tougher, but we're there on merit and it's up to us to push into that top two, because that's where you want to be. You don't want to end up in the play-offs at the end of the season because it's a lottery.

“We're chasing Charlton and they will be looking over their shoulder I'm sure, but we've got to take care of our own results and if we do, if we keep playing the way we are, I'm sure we'll be there or thereabouts.”

Before this afternoon's long trek to Somerset for their League One clash with Yeovil, the Canaries were four points behind second place Charlton, while Leeds' advantage at the top was whittled down to eight points and a game in hand following last weekend's home draw with Huddersfield.

Working with past experience, Martin believes Leeds are still a long way from over the line.

The former Peterborough skipper said: “It's a long season, we haven't even played half the games yet. Last year we were nine points behind Milton Keynes coming into the last 10 games and we ended up finishing two in front of them. So you can't read anything into it yet.

“We could go on a bad run ourselves. Hopefully we won't, but teams do in this league inevitably go through a bad run at some point in the season. Hopefully it was at the start of the season, our one, but we'll see.

“Leeds dropped two points, they'll have some big games, we've got to play them still, we've got to play Charlton and the teams around us. So it's up to us really, it's in our own hands.

Martin added: “We just took every game as it comes (last season) and if people around us dropped points it was brilliant.

“If we take care of ourselves and win our own games, that's all you can do and if it's not enough then you hold your hands up to the other team and say they've done well.

“As long as we keep winning games I think we'll start dragging people into it and not be looking over our shoulders so much.”