The form of Dean Smith’s Norwich City, having won four of their last five games in all competitions, has seen belief grow in the dressing room.
“There’s confidence within the group,” Smith said at his pre-Crystal Palace press conference on Tuesday morning.
“We believed that we had a decent squad of players and could be competitive, but I think winning breeds confidence. Having won four of the last five games and keeping clean sheets in three of them, we’ve got players pushing each other now in training. The squad looks a lot healthier now.
“Unfortunately, as a club, we’ve struggled in the Premier League with the last time we were here and the start we had this year, and then during the Winter period where we lost six games on the spin.
“We’ve had to work on that mindset and the players have been really knowledgable in terms of what they want to get from the game and what they want to look like in terms of our identity. That mindset’s been growing all the time.”
Off the back of three wins in a row, Smith said that it’s vital to continue to build momentum against Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.
“It’s really important. We’ve stressed to the players and supporters how important home fixtures can be in this league and how Carrow Road can be a fortress for us, so we want to put in the sort of performance we did against Everton.
“The crowd certainly help and get behind us to make it a tough place for other teams to come.”
Palace haven’t won in the league since beating Norwich at the end of December at Selhurst Park, but much has changed in the weeks since then.
“It was a game that was hit by COVID from both teams and injuries from ourselves,” Smith said. “Patrick \[Vieira\] wasn’t even on the sidelines that day for Palace, so it will be nice to acquaint myself with him tomorrow night, but an awful lot has changed from our point of view and we’re looking forward to playing them with renewed confidence.
“They’re a good team, have got good players and good energy with a really good structure. Patrick’s got his own identity in his side that he wants to play, which is different to last season, so we have to be really careful and plan for a good team.”
Before Matchweek 24 begins, City are above the relegation zone by one point, having played more games than Watford, Newcastle United and Burnley below them.
“At the moment, I’d rather be where we are, with the points in the bag already, because you’ve still got to go and earn them points,” Smith said. “There are going to be games tonight, so the table can change before we even start our game tomorrow. That’s the way it’s going to be and we have to take it game by game.”
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