Leon Barnett believes teams will no longer underestimate Norwich as the Barclays Premier League newcomers prepare to head to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United this weekend with a smile on their faces.
The Canaries followed up a win at Bolton with their first home victory, a hard-fought 2-1 success over Sunderland at Carrow Road on Monday night.
Centre-back Barnett, who set Norwich on their way with a close-range opening goal on the half hour, said: "We have matched teams when we came up from League One into the Championship, and I don't see why we can't do that again now. A lot of teams in the Premier League will have underestimated us, which has gone in our favour really because we are a hard-working side."
With eight points from their opening six games, Barnett feels Paul Lambert's men - who were in npower League One just two years ago - have shown they can compete at the highest level.
The former West Brom centre-back said: " When you play in the Premier League, you know teams are going to throw everything at you and it was credit to us that we defended well and did not really give much away. We deserve a bit of credit sometimes.
"It is going to be a hard season for us and you need to enjoy winning, now we can go to Old Trafford with a smile on our face."
Barnett accepts few will give Norwich much chance of returning from Manchester with any points, but that will not concern Lambert's squad.
"When we go to Old Trafford, people won't be expecting anything of us, but hopefully we can put in a good performance," he said.
"There will be no real pressure on us, and it is not going to be easy because they have star quality players, but all the lads are looking forward to it."
Norwich, meanwhile, are waiting on results of tests on striker James Vaughan, who hobbled off with a knee injury after coming on as a second-half substitute.
Source: PA
