DAREL Russell reflected on one of the best goals of his career and declared there was now a feeling of invincibility within the dressing room after the 1-0 win over Preston.

Russell struck a spectacular 90^th minute half-volley at Carrow Road to condemn the struggling Lilywhites to defeat and move up to 13^th in the Championship.

The victory made it 11 games without defeat in the league, with Norwich now closer points-wise to the play-offs than the bottom three.

It's been an amazing turnaround in fortunes for Norwich ever since Glenn Roeder took charge in late October, and Russell said confidence was now flowing through the veins of every Norwich player.

"It's brilliant," said Russell, after making it four goals for the season. "I just never feel like we're going to go out there and get beaten. There's an expectation of that, whereas earlier in the season we feared teams when we went out.

"But even when we are playing badly or indifferent I still don't have a feeling that we're ever going to have a big problem. We will soak-up pressure and churn it out and if we have to grind out that 0-0 draw we're able to do that at this minute in time and nick these wins."

As for the goal itself, Russell was in no doubt it had been one of his best. A long kick up-field by David Marshall was headed on by Dion Dublin to Russell, and from there the former Stoke man worked his magic. His chest down brought the ball perfectly under control, before swivelling to dispatch a 20-yard half-volley into the bottom corner.

"It's definitely up there in my top four," he told CanariesWorld. "I'll have to have a look through the archives and see which ones I fancy the most, but it was a very nice goal.

"I just remember taking a chest and for some reason something told me to turn and hit it with the left foot, and thank goodness it's gone in the back of the net."

It was certainly no cake-walk for a City side who struggled to get their passing game going in large periods of the match, with Russell partially blaming the pitch for Norwich's disjointed play at times.

The Carrow Road surface has taken a real battering from the elements over the past 48 hours, and Russell said the bumpy nature of the surface had not made for a flowing game.

"It was an ugly game today. We're finding it very difficult to play on this pitch here. It's had a tough time this season, this pitch. Last year it was probably the top pitch in the Championship and this year we're struggling to play. Perhaps we're getting better football away from home on less bobbly pitches, but hopefully it will pick up as the weather starts to change now.

"The pitch is really nice on the outsides but through the middle it's horrible, and you expect people to be playing good football through the middle of the park and at the minute you're spending more time on making sure you take a good touch and making a good pass at this minute in time."

Boss Glenn Roeder was delighted with Russell's late winner, but did not agree the pitch was a major problem.

"No, none at all," said Roeder, when asked if he had any concerns about the surface. "The groundsman works very hard here. He can't control the weather and considering how bad the weather has been over the last 48 hours he did a great job to make sure the game was on and the surface is more than ok when you look at some of the other pitches around the Championship at this time of year."

As for Russell's winner, Roeder admitted it had been uncharacteristic of a game which had been far from pleasing on the eye at times.

"If you're going to win a game 1-0 there can't be a better time to win it than in injury time," he said. "We are an honest group of players and we were far from our best in the first half. Second half was a lot better.

"We had to make them realise at half time that we needed to spread the play more and get our wide players into action. We needed to get more crosses in and consequently create a few more chances and that's exactly what we did.

"In the first half we had one header and one shot and when you're the home team that's just not enough to win games. Second half we had a lot of crosses go in, many more shots and although I must admit I was starting to think that a goal wasn't going to come, just like it didn't against Leicester, thankfully it did."