DAREL Russell was pleased to finally break his goalscoring duck for City by claiming a vital point against Charlton at Carrow Road.

Russell turned in Darren Huckerby's corner on 73 minutes to claim a 1-1 draw against Alan Pardew's side on Boxing Day.

In truth, Norwich should have ran out comfortable winners after bossing much of the match - especially after Sam Sodje was dismissed to a late lunge on Russell in the first half.

But in the end they had to be content with a point which keeps them out of the bottom three and unbeaten in five matches.

The goal was Russell's first in the league since returning to the Canaries from Stoke in the summer, and the 27-year-old was glad to get off the mark.

"My first league goal - it was nice to get it and hopefully I can add to it," he said. "I've been saying over the last couple of weeks I need to get on the scoresheet and it was nice to do it today."

Russell took the captain's armband in the absence of Mark Fotheringham, who was suffering with a hamstring strain, and turned in a man of the match display.

He was at the heart of most of City's best moves, with the Canaries creating a number of good chances without taking them.

At the end of the match the statistics showed 21 shots for Norwich against Charlton's six, with City also winning the corner count 10 to nothing. And Russell admitted it had been disappointing not to get the win which would have moved them up to 17^th in the Championship table and four points clear of the drop zone.

"I felt that especially after they got their man sent off and even before their goal we practically dominated the game all the way through and it hasn't fallen for us right today," he added. "We've had plenty of chances in the second half. I don't think Marshy has even had a sniff, I think he's been freezing all game and it's been unlucky for us not to get the win."

Russell has been in excellent form in recent weeks, with his goal against Alan Pardew's promotion chasers just reward for his endeavours. It's taken time for Russell to find his feet against at the Club where he came through the youth ranks, with the lack of any sort of pre-season training at Stoke taking it's toll.

"That was a major factor for me - trying to get up to speed," he said. "But I'm now up to speed and can start to work on other things rather than worrying about the fitness, because obviously a lot of my game is based on hard work and if you don't do that and can't get to places that you usually do it can be frustrating.

"But now I can get around the pitch I'm trying to work on the more subtle parts of my game."

Russell was also praised by boss Glenn Roeder, who had clearly been impressed with the midfielders attitude, both during games and down at Colney.