JASON Tindall hailed Diego Rico's performance against Norwich City as "outstanding", before adding: "He's a winner."

The Spaniard lined up in an unfamiliar centre-back role alongside Steve Cook and Chris Mepham against the Canaries.

The spot had previously been occupied by Lloyd Kelly, who had to be replaced due to a hamstring injury suffered at Manchester City last week.

Normally deployed at left-back, Rico slotted in for the remainder of the game at the Etihad in the back three, and kept his spot for the visit of Norwich to Vitality Stadium on Sunday, helping his side to a 1-0 win.

"I thought Diego was outstanding," Tindall the Daily Echo.

"He’s a great player Diego, whether you play him left-back or left-wing-back or left-sided centre-half.

"You know what you’re going to get, he’s a winner.

"I thought he defended extremely well on Sunday, as did all the back-line. I felt as team we defended really well when we had to.

"We limited a really good attacking team in Norwich to very minimal chances and I think full credit to the team for doing that."

The victory saw Cherries keep a second consecutive clean sheet at Vitality Stadium, after holding Crystal Palace to a goalless draw in the Carabao Cup.

However, the shutout was just the second time Cherries have not conceded in a league game, home or away, in 2020 – a run of more than 20 games. The only other clean sheet in that time came in a 0-0 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur in July.

"I’m really pleased," said Tindall when asked about his side keeping Norwich out.

"I believe that if we keep a clean sheet, we’ll win a lot of games because with the quality and the attacking players we’ve got in the squad, I believe we’ll always create chances and score goals.

"But you’ll only win games if you keep clean sheets at the other end and it’s something we spoke about, something we’ve worked on in training and I felt when called upon at the other end, we defended our box really, really well, which enabled us to win the game through Arnie’s bit of magic in the goal at the other end."

Cherries, who have Arnaut Danjuma's impressive effort to thank for the win over Norwich, will put their unbeaten league start on the line when they head to St Andrew's to face Coventry City on Friday night (7.45pm).