Steven Whittaker: 'Norwich City in great spirits'

Norwich City defender Steven Whittaker has claimed that the squad has "great confidence" in their battle to clinch automatic promotion to the Premier League.

The fifth-placed Canaries could enter the top two later today with a victory over second-placed Derby County at Carrow Road.

Alex Neil's side have won seven of their last eight matches in the Championship.

Whittaker believes that three points against the Rams could well set Norwich on their way to enjoying a strong finish to the season.

"There are a lot of teams fighting it out for automatic promotion but we're right in the mix and three points would hopefully get us on our way," the Scotland international told the club's official website.

"We've managed to get ourselves on a great run so we'll go into the last stages of the season with great confidence. Each game from now is massive, especially when you can see it counting down so that you can almost touch it.

"If you can string a run of wins together you could pull away from the pack. We feel like we're playing well and we're not conceding too many goals, so that puts is in good stead."

Whittaker has scored two goals in 33 games for Norwich so far this season.