Barnett: Norwich are bouncing

Published Sep. 27, 2011 3:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

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 set Norwich on their way with a close-range opening goal on the half hour, before Wales frontman Steve Morison doubled the home side's lead at the start of the second half with a bullet header following more static defending from the Black Cats. With eight points from their opening six games, Barnett feels Paul Lambert's men - who were in League One just two years ago - have shown they can compete at the highest level. "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," said the former West Brom centre-back. "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, 25, added: "There is not much Premier League experience [in the squad], so everybody is happy to put in a shift and play as hard as they can for the team - you can see that on the pitch. "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." 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.