WITH City's 2-1 win over Forest at the weekend still fresh in his mind, Lee Croft told canaries.co.uk the Canary squad are determined to get more victories under their belt.

After their first win in five games, Croft said the happy atmosphere in the away dressing room at the City Ground was a feeling which the Canaries were keen to continue.

"The lads said after the game how much better they were feeling, considering the results we've been getting lately," said Croft. "So we want more of that. It felt brilliant and it was a good journey back after the game.

"I think we showed our togetherness, we needed the win and when we went down to ten men some people might have thought 'Here we go again!',  but we all put in really good performances and we came away with three points. As we had ten men, we needed to keep possession as much as we could, defend well and try and do something productive with the ball."

The 23-year-old continued: "We have got a young side, everyone's eager and we all want to do well. When you look at the league table, it's not too big a gap and we're not that far away - you get a couple of wins on the bounce and you're back up there. We need to continue playing the way we did against Forest and get some more wins under out belt."

Gary Doherty's dismissal in the 20th minute forced a tactical change for the Canaries with Wes Hoolahan being sacrificed and Leroy Lita operating as the lone striker. Croft was asked if this had changed the way he played: "I think it did because you can't play to Leroy up in the air," he said.  "You've got to get the ball down and pass. I think maybe it was forced upon us that we had to play like that, we couldn't just hit it up towards Leroy upfront by himself because that's not his game and we didn't want to play like that. It did force us to play more and I think it suited us.

On the substitution of Hoolahan: "We all know what Wes can do, and I felt sorry for him because he started the game well and he was really looking forward to it after he got back in the team. I think that position would have really suited him, it would have been a good attacking option for us. I know he was gutted but I'm sure he'll get other opportunities."

Asked whether he felt he was a different player to that of a year ago, Croft added: "I've been working hard at the training ground with the management team and the fitness coaches, making sure I can last the 90 minutes. The other night I felt I was still getting stronger as the game went on which is good, because as the other team tires that's when you want to come into your own.

"I''ve been working on my crossing and I think it's important to always work on your game and not to rest on your laurels, and always try to make yourself a better player."

As the Canaries get ready to play hosts to Crystal Palace, Croft told First News, Norwich were keen to reward their fans support by gaining another three points: "It will be a physical game, but we need to just play our football and get the ball down and carry on doing what we did the other night.

"We owe the fans a performance and a result, and like the gaffer said after the game we owed the away fans one so it was nice to do that, we had brilliant support away at Forest. It would be nice to do it again at home."

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