CITY midfielder Wes Hoolahan says he was delighted to get on the scoresheet at Aston Villa and meant no disrespect whatsoever to the Yellow Army with his goal celebration.

The Irish international celebrated his return to the City starting line-up by sprinting to get on the end of Gary Hooper’s pass to find the net after just three minutes of the Barclays Premier League clash at Villa Park last Sunday.

Hoolahan says he was ‘over the moon’ for himself, the Norwich faithful and the team when the ball hit the back of the net, although obviously deeply disappointed along with his team-mates with City’s eventual 4-1 defeat.

The 31-year-old admits he’s had a frustrating time working his way back into first team contention, but says January transfer speculation linking him with a potential move to Villa is firmly behind him now – and was definitely not a factor when he scored on Sunday.

He told canaries.co.uk: “It’s been frustrating being out of the side, of course every professional footballer wants to be playing. You work hard in training week-in, week-out in order to basically get ready to play in games. But you’ve just got to keep your head down and work hard.

“We’ve got a great bunch of lads here, we’ve got a great team spirit and we’re a good unit together and hopefully at the end of the season we’ll finish as high up the table as we can.

“Once the window closes you know where you stand and my head’s definitely here. I’ve got to work 100 per cent which I’ve always done when I’ve pulled on the Norwich City shirt and I’ll always be fighting for the team until the last minute of the game.

“The fans have been great to me ever since I arrived and cheered my name when I’m on the pitch. It’s special to me and I enjoy every minute of it.

“Obviously it was the first few minutes of the game and you know, when I saw it hit the back of the net I was ecstatic and over the moon with the goal.

“It’s been a difficult few months but I certainly wasn’t disappointed about scoring, I was delighted with the goal. I did a fist-pump and throughout the whole game I ran my heart out for the fans and for the team.

“At the end of the game I went over to the fans to say sorry for what a disappointing result it was. I’ve got so much respect for the Norwich fans because obviously they’ve given me a lot of support over the years so I certainly didn’t mean to disrespect anybody with the celebration and I’m sorry if anyone’s taken it the wrong way because I was over the moon with my goal.

“I was delighted to score personally and for the team and the fans although obviously really disappointed that we went on to lose the game.”

WES - I WAS DELIGHTED TO SCORE

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