Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder praised his young guns as Norwich City finally emerged from the darkness of near oblivion into the promised land that is the top half of the Championship table at the weekend.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder praised his young guns as Norwich City finally emerged from the darkness of near oblivion into the promised land that is the top half of the Championship table at the weekend.

A first-half goal by Jamie Cureton was enough to beat Barnsley and send City up to 12th place - their highest position since tables became something meaningful this season.

With three of his most experienced players suspended, Roeder called on his teenage stars to perform - and they obliged against a team that, just seven days earlier, had caused the shock of the season by winning at Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Loan players Ched Evans, Ryan Bertrand, debutant Alex Pearce and Kieran Gibbs all started, while James Henry came off the bench to help earn City three points.

“I'd say it was one of the most satisfying victories I have had since I have been here, for lots of different reasons - a very young team - six under the age of 22 who have obviously not played together before; we have worked with that team all week; we had lots of qualities in that performance; we knew we were playing a team that had just beaten Liverpool and were on a high.”

Victory put City within seven points of the play-offs, but Roeder - who took his team out for a three-day training camp in Spain yesterday - admitted matters were out of City's hands.

“We obviously need other result around us to go our way,” he said. “I think to be perfectly honest it's out of our hands, but all we can do is win the next game and see what happens with the other results elsewhere around the country.

“We have quite a few teams to play that are above us at the moment so in that respect it's a little bit in our hands but it's the start we have given everyone - when the league kicked off on Saturday we started Sunday.”