Todd Cantwell: We’re showing our identity

Cantwell finished off a brilliantly worked equaliser to make it 1-1 after just six minutes, but Chelsea prevailed with a solitary goal in the second half.

“I’ve waited a long time for that,” Cantwell told canaries.co.uk post-match. “It felt special to get that goal, but it’s really disappointing it doesn’t mean anything because they always mean more when you get points. But personally I’m delighted to have scored. I’m enjoying it, and I want to show I’m good enough to play here and for the team to do well.”

Cantwell was left disappointed with the narrow defeat in sweltering conditions, but felt there were plenty of positives to take from the Canaries’ performance.

“I think we had good spells in the game against a world-class team,” he said. “We’re showing our identity and what we want to do. The tempo was high and at times we were matching them and outplaying them, so it’s bitterly disappointing not to take anything from the game.

“There’s time to be disappointed and time to reflect, but we’ve got to build on the positives. We’re making this a tough place to come and play and if we continue to play like that we’ll pick up points here.

“Last season we scored a lot of goals and we’re showing we can do that in the Premier League. Hopefully we can keep building and make Carrow Road a fortress to come to.”

Carrow Road was once against a sea of yellow, and the players were backed throughout with passionate support.

“The fans are massively important,” Cantwell said. “Hopefully they’ll be impressed by what they’ve seen today. Chelsea won the Europa League last season and have unbelievable players and I would like to think the fans were impressed with what we did at times, even though we have lessons to learn. As long as they’re behind us like that then we’ll get points.”