CHRIS LAKEY Adam Drury has welcomed the Norwich City fans' contribution to the Canaries good early-season form.

CHRIS LAKEY

Adam Drury has welcomed the Norwich City fans' contribution to the Canaries good early-season form.

More than 600 fans were at Torquay in midweek to witness the Carling Cup win while this afternoon's home support will again be close to capacity.

This season's performances have been welcomed by fans whose trials and tribulations of last season are still fresh in the memory - and Drury believes the players have benefited.

“The atmosphere has been brilliant,” said the City left back. “We took six or seven hundred fans to Torquay, which was brilliant, and at home it's been the same.

“Last year when you had people on your backs people, you tend not to want the ball and not want to play and take the easy option, so at the minute it is good because everyone wants to play and get on the ball because everyone's confident.”

Barnsley will be a tough nut to crack if early-season form is anything to go by - they've won two, lost one and drawn one. The two victories have come away from home - at Hull and Colchester - but Drury is hoping Carrow Road will be a very different proposition.

“I think away from home they have won a couple of games, so we know it's going to be a tough game, but we will try to get Fortress Carrow Road going again and the emphasis will be on us to try and go out there and get the right result,” he said.

Barnsley haven't been short of goals, or enthusiasm, and appear to have only forward gears.

“Hopefully that will suit us a little bit, if they do come and attack” added Drury. “But at the same time we've got to play our game and try and carry on the form that we've been showing.”

With a newly-promoted side against one of the favourites for a top-six place, Drury believes the visitors have nothing to lose.

“People expect us, because we're at home as well, to get the right result and win the games, so really they are going to come to Carrow Road with nothing to lose,” he said. “But it is up to us to go out there, stamp our authority on the game and play the passing game that we have been playing.”

Barnsley are coming off the back of a tough Carling Cup first round win at Blackpool - who took them all the way to a penalty shoot-out - while a much-changed City had a facile success on the south coast at Torquay, a venue that could have become another banana skin to slip on, as so often in previous years.

“I think in previous years we haven't done perhaps as well as we should have done in the first round, especially against the lower league teams, and this year we got the right result,” Drury added. “We went there and did a professional job and came away with a win.

“It is the sort of game where if you don't win people say it's a shock and we shouldn't be losing, and everyone says we should be winning, so we were on a hiding to nothing really, but we got the right result and we're in the next round. It was good we could change the side and everyone slotted in and did a good job.”