Graham Dorrans was the main man for Alex Neil in Norwich City's 2-1 Championship fightback at Nottingham Forest.

Dorrans slammed home a priceless second-half winner from 20 yards, but his midfield masterclass drew praise from Neil.

'I thought he was great. He is a special player, in terms of technically, and the one thing he does do is control games,' said the City boss. 'I thought he controlled the second-half for us. He was different class. Technically he is special at this level. You won't find many better players in this league who can take it in, manipulate the ball and break lines and influence the play in key areas but also pick up second balls and start a fresh attack, and Graham is very, very good at that. I thought Graham and Jonny (Howson) were outstanding. I posed questions of them with Alex (Tettey) missing could they replicate his bite and they did it and more.'

Neil is convinced Dorrans will only get better, along with the rest of his fit-again players, after missing chunks of the early-season Championship combat. Neil is unlikely to take any chances with his frontline troops for Tuesday's EFL Cup trip to Everton.

'I think we'll make changes because it is a long, hard Championship season. We have another three league games coming up in a week, including Newcastle away. So that is tough and I have not made any bones about it, the Championship is our priority and that is a fact,' he said. 'But it was good from that fitness point of view we could get more minutes into the legs of the lads who have been injured. I thought Martin (Olsson) was quite conservative in the first-half and that was something we spoke about and I felt he pushed on more after the break so it is all good from that aspect with Martin getting more minutes, Russell (Martin) and Graham the same.'