Familiar faces are helping Steven Naismith to hit the ground running with Norwich City.

The 29-year-old January signing from Everton scored an excellent debut goal in City's dramatic 5-4 loss to Liverpool at the weekend. His transition from Merseyside to Norfolk has been eased by a host of Scottish connections, as he looks to help keep the Canaries secure survival.

Among those links is first-team coach Gary Holt, who made 181 appearances for Kilmarnock before joining the Canaries as a tough-tackling midfielder in 2001.

'Holty's here, which is somebody I know from the past,' Naismith said. 'I was in the youth teams at very young ages when he was a force for Kilmarnock.

'I've bumped into him a few times over the years from being back in Kilmarnock and things so he's a familiar face for me.'

Naismith and Holt were both born in Irvine and both played for Killie in the early stages of their careers but City's latest signing does not have a tattoo to match that of his coach.

'Unfortunately not, I didn't win a cup, so I can't boast that one!' Naismith added with a smile, of Holt helping the Ayrshire side to win the Scottish Cup in 1997.

The Scotland international forward made over 100 appearances for Killie before joining Rangers in 2007, where he played with new Canaries team-mates Steven Whittaker and Kyle Lafferty.

Having also played alongside both Russell Martin and Graham Dorrans with Scotland, Naismith has plenty of friendly faces to turn to.

'I think every time I've moved in my career I have tried to find out a lot about the club I'm going to and everything around it and those guys have definitely been a help,' the £8.5million signing said.

'But not only them guys, those who have been here in the past have said great things about the club.'

The former Scotland Under-21s captain also played against Alex Neil on several occasions in Scotland, when City's boss played for Hamilton. The former Everton favourite does not just remember his fellow Scot as a battling midfielder though.

'He was always somebody who could start attacks,' Naismith recalled of Neil as a player. 'We were predominantly always a team who were on the attack in the opponents' half but he was always somebody who was calm on the ball and wanted to play football and I think you can see that in his style of management

'That's definitely something which I enjoy and look forward to being involved in.'