Russell Martin urges Swansea City to take on Carrow Road challenge

Russell Martin wants his Swansea City side to embrace the challenge of facing a Norwich side desperately hunting a play-off berth in their own Carrow Road backyard this afternoon (3pm).

Head coach Martin makes a first return to his old stomping ground and a venue where he enjoyed a number of great days as a player.

A former Canaries captain, Martin experienced three promotions while with the East Anglia club, with assistant Matt Gill also playing his part in a successful era for Norwich.

The hosts are just two points off the play-off positions with three games to play, having won one of their last eight games.

Swansea, meanwhile, are the form team in the Championship having taken five wins and a draw from their last six games.

And Martin has urged his side to continue their sequence of strong performances in what is sure to be a hostile environment with so much at stake for the home team.

“I like Carrow Road as a ground, it’s a tremendous place to play,” said the Swans boss.

“The pitch will be good, the atmosphere will be good, and I loved playing there.

“I hope our players can step onto that pitch and put in a performance that matches the ones they have been putting in consistently for however long it is now.

“If we get that, it will be the best feeling for us going back.

“I think it will be a really good game, we play another team who are chasing the play-offs and they need to win to keep their season alive.

“I said at the start of this week that we can really affect the league in a few ways. We played Huddersfield who are fighting for their lives, and in Preston and Norwich it’s two teams who are trying to get into the top six.

“We want to turn it into the perfect week for us, which would be three wins from three games and that is what the focus is on."