Manchester United were expected to hammer Norwich two weeks ago, but Paul Lambert's men put in an impressive display and missed a hatful of chances before going down 2-0.

Pilkington hit a post and also missed an easy chance to put Norwich ahead when clean through against the champions, but he was on much better form yesterday, scoring twice to send Swansea home to a despondent Wales with nothing.

The 23-year-old, a £2million summer signing from Huddersfield, rifled home his first with less than a minute on the clock and then went on to wrap up the 3-1 win with a close-range finish after a neat turn to lose his marker.

"I've seen the chance I missed at United a few times. It was painful watching it," Pilkington said.

"But everyone misses chances. Everyone is human. It's how you bounce back from that.

"The gaffer said just keep doing your stuff and the goals will come and luckily they have.

"I have been grateful that I had the chance to put it right after 48 seconds. I wasn't going to miss that one."

Pilkington's route to playing top-flight football has been a roller-coaster one.

After beginning his career in non-league football with Stockport, two years ago he was plucked from obscurity by Huddersfield, where he starred in the club's League One campaign before breaking his leg towards the end of the season.

The youngster bounced back from the injury and put in a series of impressive displays which persuaded Norwich to take a gamble on him this summer.

Pilkington, who is now the Canaries' top scorer with three goals, is loving life at the top.

"You can't beat the feeling of scoring in the Premier League," he said.

"I've scored goals at grounds where there wasn't even a crowd behind the goal. There was nothing apart from grass, trees or houses.

"I have worked really hard and it's all paying off now.

"It's been a big step up for me and it's one that I like to think I'm thriving on.

"I love playing against the big teams in the big stadiums."

Challenges do not come much bigger than next week's trip to Liverpool, but for Pilkington, an even bigger match awaits him at Carrow Road the following week against the team he supported growing up - Blackburn.

"That will be a massive day for me," Pilkington added.

"Most of my family are Blackburn fans so they will be down.

"I used to go and watch them all the time as a kid. Alan Shearer was my hero. I used to have his poster on my wall."

Despite losing, Swansea looked dangerous at times, with goalscorer Danny Graham and Scott Sinclair impressing up front.

Their downfall was slack marking. Pilkington easily beat his marker to the ball for both his goals and Russell Martin headed home Norwich's second unchallenged.

The Swans, who along with Norwich were ear-marked as relegation certainties at the start of the season, have still collected eight points from their first eight matches and manager Brendan Rodgers was not too despondent after yesterday's defeat.

"We're delighted to be in the best league in the world and I'm not going to kill the players because they've been absolutely magnificent for me this year," Rodgers said.

"We're going to have days like this. Probably more so than last season. Its important for us to have the ability to bounce back and go again. That's something we've been able to do."

Rodgers thinks his team will be much more effective against Wolves next week.

He added: "Physically one or two looked a wee bit jaded because of the travelling, the high pressure games and the internationals.

"All this is new for us. We're all still learning.

"We'll recover well and then we'll go and have a good week's training and get a good result at Wolves."