Kenny McLean was pivotal to Norwich City’s 1-0 win at home to Brentford on Wednesday night, and the midfielder said the Canaries’ mindset helped them secure three points.
“It showed at the end what it meant to everybody,” he said. “The result is massive and it’s a big step but there are 12 games to go. We approached this game with the same attitude, character and mentality that we do every single game.
“Of course it was a big game, first against second, but we didn’t approach it like it was the end of the world if we didn’t win it. We went in pretty relaxed and that showed in our first half performance when we were very good and pressed them high.
“We got the goal with a bit of magic from Emi, that’s what he does. It was about sticking together towards the end when Brentford threw everything at us. They’re a good team and we nullified their threat, I think.
“It seems I’m speaking about Emi quite a lot but I’m delighted to be doing so because he keeps producing performances like that and goals like that which are only going to benefit us. Long may that continue.
“Most of the season, the way we’ve defended as a team with the back lads has been outstanding. I don’t think Tim had too much to do tonight, but what he had to do was commanding and everything looked assured.
“We’re hard to beat and when you’ve got that quality at the top end of the pitch you’ll be a problem to anybody.”
Despite the win and the nature of the league table, there’s no danger of anyone inside Norwich City’s first-team getting carried away.
“We’re full of confidence with six wins in a row and we’ll hopefully keep that momentum going with a big game on Saturday,” McLean added. “It’s another three points. We’ll look forward to it, recover, rest and go again.
“It’s been ‘head down, work hard’ all season and that’s what we’ve done. We took one game at a time and up to now it’s been good for us so we’ll continue to do that. We won’t look at what we’ve got after Saturday because Saturday’s a massive game.
“It’s just adrenaline you’re running on at the end and it was hard work, so it was good to hear the final whistle!”