Paul Lambert refused to get carried away – and urged everyone else to follow suit – as his high-flying Canaries turned on the style in the west country.

The City boss insisted that the time to be savouring success was a long way off and claimed the media were guilty of over-cooking the Norwich City egg.

'Nobody should get carried away,' he said after the comprehensive 3-0 win at Ashton Gate. 'We have done really fine and to come here and play the way we did I thought we were brilliant.'

Two goals from Simeon Jackson sandwiched a Wes Hoolahan penalty which had made it 2-0 at half-time, with the Canaries in control of the game. Victory leaves them in third place in the Championship table going into the two-week break for international commitments – but Lambert says the heady heights of today mean little in the long run.

The media, he said, were perpetuating the opposite theory, a steam-roller effect perhaps – and while there was possibly a hint of tongue-in-cheek, there was little doubt there was a message behind the comments.

'It's you lads, you created it, you give them the food to feast on,' he said, referring to the 'monster' that he believes can be created by the combination of a winning team and attendant hype. 'I've have been in the game long enough to know that there's miles to go. We have done fine – as I said, everybody gets carried away, but I'm going to blame you.

'Building it up if we were 44 games gone and we were sitting where we are, then I might think you're talking sense, but at the minute I will just wait.'

It's a message he says his players adhere to.

'They don't get carried away, they don't tell you much in the press about what goes on and so they shouldn't because there's a long, long way to go,' he said.

The fact remains that the enforced break begins with victory fresh in the mind, although Lambert played down the consequences.

'What was going to happen today was going to happen and whether we went away getting beat it was never going to be blighted by a defeat,' he said. 'We have done really fine to get ourselves a decent start in the table. It was never going to be one that we were going to go away for the break and lose sleep over.'

The afternoon didn't start too well for Lambert, who lost left-back Adam Drury to a hamstring injury in the warm-up – with referee Fred Graham and, presumably, Bristol City boss Keith Millen offering no objections to a common sense approach of drafting in Steve Smith and promoting the extra travelling man, Luke Daley, to the subs' bench.

It was Smith's first start since his summer move from Rangers, with ankle ligament damage sustained in pre-season keeping him out of action until his nine-minute debut against Leicester last week.

'We spoke to the referee and obviously common sense prevails anyway,' said Lambert 'If it happened to a Bristol City lad I'd never have any problems with it, it's just part and parcel of the game.

'It was just about another 10 minutes or so before the game – it was either that or risk him and he's out for weeks on end and he has got two weeks to recover and I thought Steve Smith came in and I thought was brilliant.

'He has a little bit of a knock, but he's okay – he's just really, really tired, which you expect. But I thought he was excellent.'

City weathered a mini storm, but after Jackson put them ahead on 23 minutes, it was only a matter of guessing the finals scoreline: the result was rarely in doubt.

'We were under pressure for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game and you get a foothold in the game and then we started,' said Lambert.

'But it's a hard place to come. Regardless of where they are in the league, it was always going to be a tough game. The crowd are vibrant there's no doubt, but we deserved to win. I just always think we have to try and get on the front foot – I don't think we've drawn too many games since we've been here and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I thought the way we played it could have been a bit more.'

Jackson was again preferred to Chris Martin alongside Grant Holt - and took his chance with both hands with a pair of quality goals against England keeper David James.

'His first goal I thought was top class,' said Lambert. 'His second one, which was a difficult one to come into but still a lot of work to do and a terrific finish, but he's been excellent. He's not played much football and he has had to wait patiently – it's a squad game. Him and Grant gave them problems the whole game and Simeon does what he is good at, getting on the end of things and being quick.

'One thing about Simeon Jackson is he is a brilliant pro, and he has never once let his head go down when he's not been in the side.'

Jackson's first was all his own work, but the second owed a lot to goalkeeper John Ruddy, who saw the striker in space and found him with a monster kick.

'It was brilliant, it was well spotted,' Lambert said. 'A lot of work for Simeon still to do, but Ruddy was excellent ,I thought, as were the back four. I thought they were brilliant.'