CITY 'keeper David Marshall has returned from a training camp with Scotland and is now focussing his attentions on earning a fourth successive clean sheet for the Canaries.

Marshall spent three days north of the border with his international team-mates as new boss George Burley got the chance to see his squad up close and personal for the first time.

Now back at Colney, Marshall is preparing with the rest of the Norwich squad to face Cardiff City on Saturday (kick-off 12noon).

The 22-year-old and his defence are in good form after successive shut-outs against Leicester, Southampton and Preston. Indeed, only six teams in the Championship have a better defensive record than the Canaries, who have conceded 35 goals in 30 games.

It has been Norwich's inability to consistently convert chances at the other end which has cost them points recently, despite going on an 11-game unbeaten run which has seen them move from the bottom of the table into 13^th position.

And Marshall said City's return to winning ways owed much to the players directly in front of him.

"It's been good," he said. "We've got ourselves out of a bit of trouble. The defence has been great and the centre halves have been really good. We have obviously had some other defenders come in, but Shacks and Doc have been excellent.

"When Tiny left I think the fans expected someone to come in straight away, but with Doc and Shacks playing so well together it's helped. The two of them have been great, and the last three games we haven't conceded so we must be doing something right."

Darel Russell's injury time strike against the Lilywhites ensured it was the midfielder grabbing all the headlines come Monday morning. But his spectacular winner took some of the attention from Marshall, who made an excellent save to deny substitute Brett Ormerod in the closing stages.

With the score still perched at 0-0, Ormerod was clean through on goal, with only the outstretched boot of Marshall preventing a smash and grab by Alan Irvine's side.

"That's the way it goes. He was on the bench and you always know he has a goal in him. It would have been disappointing to lose the game that way, but then we go up the other and Rusty hits one with his swinger and it flies in the back of the net."

The fact the ball even found its way to Russell to score the winner was again down to Dion Dublin; the big striker adding yet another assist to his collection this season.

And Marshall, who went route one to find the head of Dublin as the game entered injury time, said having a player of his calibre in the squad could not be underestimated.

"Dion is great," he said. "He's played alongside Curo and Ched and he's always someone you can hit the ball to. It gives us another option. Although we don't like to play the long ball too much, it does give you another option.

"At 38 he's not going to play every game this season. He knows that. He has played the last two 90 minutes and I think he has been awesome. I think there's not too many midweek games coming up, which should help him."

As for his first meeting with Burley, Marshall said the new international boss had made it clear he was looking to continue the good work of his predecessor without rocking the boat too much.

What this means for Marshall's own international future remains unclear, with the twice-capped player battling it out with Sunderland's Craig Gordon and Rangers Allan McGregor for the number one jersey when Scotland play their first match under the Burley regime next month, a friendly with Croatia.

"It was just two or three days to go up to Scotland and meet the new gaffer," said Marshall, who said it had been a relatively relaxing few days for the Tartan Army. "The boys played golf on one of the mornings and then we did a bit of training. It was a good get-together.

"The new gaffer was fine. He was just saying that he was going to try and carry on and continue what's been happening of the past couple of years."

Scotland's next big target is to reach the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They narrowly missed out on a place in this summer's European Championships, with the likes of France and Italy blocking their progress from the group.

This time round the Scots have been dealt a slightly easier hand, with no former world champions in sight in group nine. This time round Holland, Iceland, Norway and Macedonia stand between Scotland and their first appearance in a major final since the World Cup in France in 1998.

"The group we had last season was really hard, and it's obviously an easier group this time," added Marshall

"It was good to get together for a few days. There are no divisions in the squad and all the boys are together."