Norwich eye promotion challenge

Last updated : 16 September 2008 By Smallsy
NORWICH City may not be one of the first teams people would pick to go up from the Championship this season but Mark Fotheringham insists that his side are strong enough to challenge for a place in the Premiership.

The Canaries, who narrowly avoided relegation last season, have been doing reasonably well this campaign under Glenn Roeder and beat Plymouth on the south coast at the weekend.

Paul Sturrock admitted after the game that his side had been 'embarassed' by the quality of their opponents and this morning the Norwich captain has given a statement of his clubs intent insisting that their win at the weekend was no fluke.

He told BBC Radio Norfolk he expects his team to be competing alongside QPR, Birmingham, Wolves and Bristol City for an automatic promotion place,

"We are definitely striving to be the perfect team in this league this season and to go up.

"The fans should start believing as well because we have got the players capable of doing it."

Norwich's last season in the Premiership was during 2004/05 but since then they have failed to make the playoffs, but during the summer former Newcastle and West Ham boss Glenn Roeder added 13 new players to turn their fortunes around.

"We should be comfortable in a lot of the matches with the team we've got.

"It'll be a different type of pressure for Norwich this year because we're going to be favourites going into a lot of games."


Norwich's credentials will be tested tonight when they face QPR at Carrow Road.