McLean finally gets off the mark to boost Canaries’ promotion bid & stake claim to Scotland spot..

KENNY McLEAN was a relieved man after finally firing in his first two goals in English football to keep Norwich flying high.

The Scotland midfielder had become annoyed at people back home seeing he was not playing regularly – and presuming he was not good enough.

Mc L e a n needs game time to help his ambitions with the Scots, having been in Alex McLeish’s national squad on the pre- season tour to South America.

But the 27-year-old is part of a fierce battle for starting places at Norwich, who are two points clear at the summit. Former Borussia Dortmund squad players Mario Vrancic and Moritz Leitner are jostling for position with him in midfield.

Before this match, the Scot (above) had not scored in his nine appearances on English soil since signing from Aberdeen in January 2018.

That all changed when his curling finish made it 1-1 – then he smashed in to win a thrilling game.

McLean said: “It is a bit of a relief. When you get to this stage of the season, and you’ve not played much football, there are question marks.

“You just have to bide your time. You can’t let your head go down.

“The bench here was as strong as I have seen it. That’s going to keep us on our toes.”

McLean is also fired up by the Championship promotion race – even though he enjoyed a string of second- placed finishes at Aberdeen.

He said: “I’ve been in big games – playing in finals and when we were close to Celtic – but not to this extent.

“But I’m loving it. You’d rather be in our position than pretty much any other team in the division.

“We are sitting at the top and that’s where we want to be.”

In-form Bristol City looked ready to take them down at the start of this match, with Jamie Paterson smashing in.

McLean equalised but, a minute later, the Scot allowed Callum O’Dowda to breeze past him on a solo run and put the Robins back ahead.

Norwich were rampant early in the second half though, with Ben Godfrey’s close-range equaliser being followed by McLean’s winner.

It ruined City’s three-month unbeaten run, stretching back to their defeat at Leeds in November.

O’Dowda admitted the Robins – who had not dropped a point in 2019 – might have paid for being too ambitious when it was 2-2.

The Ireland midfielder said: “Some teams would think at 2-2 that, ‘ We want to hang on to this’ – but we still wanted to play.

“That’s the type of team we are. And these are the things that happen.”

NORWICH CITY: