Teemu Pukki was all too grateful to his team-mates for laying on a plate his second-half brace, as Norwich City tore Sheffield Wednesday to shreds at Hillsborough.
The Canaries finished Saturday top of the Championship following their 4-0 thrashing of the struggling Owls – the biggest win to date of Daniel Farke's reign, with Emi Buendía and Dennis Srbeny adding their names to the score sheet.
It was some return to the starting line-up for City's Finnish favourite, who had missed the last three league games – all victories – after picking up a hamstring injury while on international duty.
'It was really nice to be back, first of all,' admitted the 28-year-old, who now has eight goals in all club competitions since his summer switch as a free agent from Brondby.
'Those couple of weeks the guys have been playing really well, so it was nice to come back into the team because all the lads have good confidence at the moment.
'For sure, I need to thank the guys. Both of them were an empty goal and it was easy to just finish them, so thanks for the guys and it's good as a striker to be there in the right place. So of course I'm happy with these goals.
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'I think we are doing the right things at the moment and there are still 30 games to go, so it's really early to say anything. It shows the quality we do have in the team and what we are capable of – but it needs a lot of work from the team from here every day, so we need to keep working hard.'
Pukki, who also has three goals from his three Finland outings since the summer, credited the City head coach with a tangible impact on proceedings after a goalless first half at Hillsborough.
'He said if we keep playing like this it's a 50-50 who is going to win, but if we step up it is totally our game – and that's what we did actually,' said Pukki. 'So it helped us. Totally his words made a difference.
'I think in the first half we were maybe struggling a bit, but in the second half we totally showed who is the better team and deserved these points.'
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