TWO-GOAL hero Arturo Lupoli and midfielder Matty Pattison were singled out for praise by boss Glenn Roeder after their performances helped City come back to claim a 2-2 draw at Cardiff.

Lupoli struck twice in five minutes after coming off the bench to cancel out Cardiff's 2-0 advantage - and Pattison capped a positive display with a crucial header off the line from Johnson to ensure the Canaries made the long trip back t0 Norfolk with a point.

Roeder commented: "I have to say Matty Pattison had his best 90 minutes for Norwich City by a mile - he was outstanding from start to finish. He always plays well in parts of games, he's a young player, he's an unexperienced player so that's to be expected. He was outstanding throughout today and I'm very pleased for the lad."

Lupoli netted his first goals in Canary colours, the second a deft diving header into the corner from Lee Croft's neat ball in. Roeder paid tribute to the skill required by the striker to score: "I believe that heading has become a lost art, I don't think that players head the ball as well as they used to, they don't even enjoy practising heading but it is a skill. Arturo showed excellent technique to angle the ball away into the corner to give us the draw."

"Hopefully it will be the result which kick-starts our season. I've felt we've been the better team in all the games we've played but we have been a bit blunt, we have been an instrument without a sharp edge to it which is something that we're trying to do something about. We do need the help of another striker who has the abilty to not only score goals but as a target man can help out the other strikers."

City might have come away with all three points if Jamie Cureton hadn't missed an eighth-minute penalty, but Roeder was pleased with the way his players responded: "Of course no-one misses a penalty on purpose, no-one doesn't score on purpose, it just seems the way things are for the moment for the strikers, and maybe even Jamie Cureton - he rolled the ball wide and the goalkeeper manages to make a save, which is always disappointing.

"We kept going, I thought we had more chances, I thought we had good possession and passed the ball well, and then for the third game running we gave a penalty away. Where I was very critical of the decision made at Coventry, the referee today got that decision right and we found ourselves in a crazy position once again.  We pulled out of it, we don't always do that, and Arturo got us a couple of goals."