Borja Sainz did his talking on the pitch with a stunning goal in Norwich City’s 5-0 Championship rout of Rotherham to mark his red card reprieve.

The 23-year-old winger was facing a four-game ban, after his second dismissal of his debut season, for a tangle with Jonny Howson in the midweek Middlesbrough defeat.

But City successfully overturned his sending off for violent conduct, and Sainz served up a superb 25-yard strike as David Wagner’s squad moved back inside the play-off places.

Wagner hailed the Spaniard's powers of recovery following a turbulent few days.

“He was very sad, angry, more or less everything after the last game. And then 48 hours later he was super, super happy, maybe the most happy person on the planet after myself,” said the City head coach. “Obviously it gave us a massive boost when we got the information before training on Friday.

"You saw how he reacted on the pitch, so focused, so sharp defensively and offensively he always looked like a threat. He is a very important player for us at this stage of the season. 100pc. His goal was top.

"But I think we have seen a few of these so far in the season. And maybe I've seen a few more in training as well. But he is capable of moments like this. And hopefully he keeps going.”

Wagner admitted a sense of injustice still lingers at Sainz’s early exit on Teesside, in a game Norwich were leading and in control.

“First of all, I think I have to say football games are about mistakes. And referees are part of football games, and they can make mistakes,” he said. “The only thing you can then ask if they do make mistakes that they are corrected. This is what they've done.

"But it still hurts, this is true as well, because everybody could see there was something in it for us. And it felt like someone has taken it out of your hands. That wasn’t us, and it was not Borja. He did nothing wrong.

“Thankfully this was the outcome after the appeal. I already knew it after I'd seen it on the video footage. We all together said we have to try to calm down and trust in the panel to correct the mistake. Then we make sure we move on.

"But we said this before (Rotherham), ‘Boro is done. We will not play it again. We don't get the points back, but what we can get back is the winning feeling, the positive performances. And obviously another three points’. This is what we've done, and Borja was part of that.”