Team News | Late call to be made on Núñez

A late call will be made on the fitness of Marcelino Núñez ahead of Wednesday night's trip to face Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship.

A late call will be made on the fitness of Marcelino Núñez ahead of Wednesday night's trip to face Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship.

Speaking to the press ahead of the game, head coach David Wagner outline that there were no other fresh injury concerns following the win against Sunderland.

"Kenny (McLean) is good, nearly back to normal. We think he will be fine for Wednesday," Wagner said.

"No further concerns after the last game, we'll make a late call on Nacho but we're confident he'll be ready for Rotherham."

Josh Sargent's goal was the deciding factor in that win over the Black Cats.

The US international fired home from close range with just 10 minutes remaining, while a lot of the plaudits were saved for the defensive performance in tough conditions.

"Once I've watched the game back, the players did a lot of good things. We really liked how we defended, how high up the pitch we kept our line. We forced them to longer, uncontrolled balls and were rarely beaten in open play.

"We had opportunities that we weren't able to use but we stayed calm, stayed focused. The players didn't lose their head, which I was very happy with. It's over and done.

"In recent weeks, he (Ben Gibson) has shown a different style in his game - aggressive, front foot defending. He's added something different, a nastiness that you like to have in your centre half.

"He deserves all the credit and praise that he's getting right now."

Norwich's last trip to the Riverside Stadium ended in a 5-1 defeat in April last year, but Wagner maintains it is a very different landscape from that fixture.

He says that his squad are more focused on showing a better side of themselves than the one that suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Middlesbrough in October.

Michael Carrick's side, who were beaten in last year's play-off semi-finals, are currently 14th in the table with just one win in five.

"Recent results don't look great, but now that I've seen them, I know they're very competitive. They've missed a lot of chances that would have turned games," Wagner added.

"We're not judging them on results, we've seen how good they can be and how tight those games were. But as always, we want to focus on us and what we can do.

"They have top quality offensively but maybe have not been clinical enough. You haven't seen it in terms of the goals, but if you watch the games, you can see they're very good in attack.

"It's a different team, a different period for both of us, different moods and atmospheres, and confidence. We know how important the right mindset is.

"My team is hungry, and desperate to keep going. We need to be sure that we are independent from our opponent. We respect Boro a lot but we have to make sure that we are independent from the opponent, and whether we are at home or away.

"It'll be in the back of your head a little bit. The last time we played them at home is more in the back of my head, we were below par and they've beaten us. Like when we played Blackburn, Watford, Sunderland, we wanted the opportunity to show a different face to that one four months ago."