Promotion memories come flooding back for Graham Dorrans after Norwich City’s nifty nine points

Dorrans' first goal since signing permanently in the summer of 2015 completed City's 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest, lifting them to second in the Championship and making it three successive wins.

'It reminds me of the year we went up where we were just ticking off the games and getting the three points, and that's what we've managed to do again here,' said Dorrans. 'The games come so fast in this league that if you pick up a couple of wins, you get those points on the table and you climb right up there. So thankfully we've done that this week.'

City's home victories over Cardiff and Wigan last week, along with Newcastle's surprise Saturday defeat at home to Wolves, have helped flip the mood around the club since that heavy defeat at Birmingham and a few lingering transfer deadline day frustrations.

'I don't think the quality in our team has ever been in question,' added Dorrans. 'We know when we come to teams, they are always going to be up for it because we're the team that came down from last season and the team everyone wants to beat.

'But we've showed character and quality to get back into this game, pushed on and won it. These are the games you need to tick off, take three points and move on.

'We've kept the core of our players from last season. The Murphys have come up now and they are doing fantastic, and we've had a good start. So hopefully we can continue that and push on as far as we can go.'

It was one of the key traits that brought Premier League football back to Carrow Road two seasons ago – quick lessons, learned.

The anxiety of City's previous two home wins was as unnecessary as it was unnerving for some – yet having come from behind on Saturday, the Canaries showed impeccable composure away from home to see out an excellent comeback victory.

And all that, with a holding midfield duo in Dorrans and Jonny Howson that had a bit to prove in the injury absence of Alex Tettey at the City Ground.

'The manager has spoken to us all week about discipline and sitting in there because we had no Alex as cover, so I thought me and Jonny did that well,' said Dorrans.

'We gave a bit of protection to Timm (Klose) and Russell (Martin), and managed to see the game out.

'We spoke about it over the last week – I think it had to be spoken about because as you'd seen, we had been under a little bit of pressure in the last two games. But we went in after the game here and that was what a lot of the lads were saying – that we'd seen the game out professionally and it was good that we realised things we had to work on, and then did it.'

Not only that. City's holding midfielders were the ones to score the comeback goals – Dorrans' first for more than a year eventually earning all three points against a useful Forest side.

'Jonny's got that knack of being in the right place at the right time and after his first touch, I thought it was a very difficult finish – so for him to get up there and put it in, it was a great finish and I'm pleased for him as well,' added Dorrans – who stated his own desire to score more often only last week, having only just returned from an untimely pre-season knock.

'It's a good turnaround,' he smiled.

'It was something I spoke to the gaffer about in pre-season, about getting forward. My job here wasn't to get forward, but the ball broke nicely to the edge of the box and it managed to go in.

'It's something I'm working on and hopefully I can get forward and chip in with a few goals to help the boys out. I've been looking to add it to my game and it was nice to see that as soon as I hit it, it was going in.

'But the most important thing for us, especially after going in at half-time 1-0 down, was coming away from this stadium with three points and we've done that.'

All of which rounded off a great eight days for Alex Neil's men, with tomorrow's EFL Cup date at high-flying Everton next up.

'It's great to back up those home wins,' added Dorrans. 'We set ourselves a target of nine points from these three games and we've reached that target, so we move on.

'We've got a good game on Tuesday now to get a distraction from the league and get a cup game, and we'll see where we are with that.'

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