Norwich City defender Russell Martin has admitted that he owes his career to Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert when he was in charge of the Canaries.

The 28-year-old became a first-team regular under Lambert during his tenure at Carrow Road and has continued to perform well in the Premier League under Chris Hughton.

He has said that Norwich are full of confidence going into their clash with Villa on Sunday following their victory over Tottenham Hotspur last week.

"I have a lot of respect for Paul Lambert and I owe him a huge debt," he told reporters.

"I probably owe my career and everything to him. But we got a lot of belief back from beating Spurs last week and we will go to Villa very confident about getting a result.

"The big difference against Spurs was that we took our chance when it came and hopefully we can get an early goal against Villa that will set us up for another winning performance."

Norwich are 15th in the Premier League, four points clear of the relegation zone.