Norwich head coach David Wagner praised his players for turning their season around after watching them record a comfortable 2-0 win over his former club Huddersfield at Carrow Road.
A poor run of form in the autumn had seen the Canaries slip into the bottom half of the Championship, but they have now won five games from eight to move to within two points of the play-off places.
Their latest success came courtesy of second-half goals from Sam McCallum and Borja Sainz.
Wagner said: “The players deserve all the credit for the way they reacted to that bad run.
“They went through a difficult spell but they stood together, kept their heads up and never felt sorry for themselves.
“They said ‘we are better than this, we can do better than this’ and have put together a good run to get us back up the table.
“Now we have players coming back and the challenge is to keep this going, keep delivering, like we did today.
“I thought this was another good step in the right direction – a good result, a clean sheet and also a good overall performance, which I was also pleased about.
“Sometimes when opponents sit so deep you can get frustrated when the goals don’t come early but we stuck at it and once we scored early in the second half I thought we controlled the game. We created a lot of opportunities and could have scored more goals.”
The Canaries took a deserved lead 90 seconds into the second half as half-time substitute McCallum headed in his first goal for the club.
Sainz curled in a second with 17 minutes left.
A disappointing Huddersfield side failed to register an effort on goal until the 87th minute, when the outcome had long since been decided.
Manager Darren Moore felt his side were punished for a couple of lapses in concentration.
“We had defended well in the first half, while we also had a good impetus in the game for a while, but we switched off a couple of times for their goals which is disappointing,” he said.
“For the first goal it was second phase from a corner and they put in a good cross which the lad has headed in. We needed to be concentrating better then because you never like conceding goals like that from set pieces.
“It was a similar story with the second goal and you cannot afford that against a good side like Norwich.
“I am certainly not complaining about the effort the lads put in today and there were times when he had the ball and got into some promising positions.
“When we get there we need to be more determined, arrogant if you like, to make more of our chances.”
Vardy eyes 100-point season after Leicester's title win
Jamie Vardy has challenged his Leicester City team-mates to reach 100 points after sealing the Championship title with one game to spare.
The Foxes were promoted back to the Premier League without kicking a ball after Leeds United’s 4-0 defeat to QPR on Friday, but they needed to win on Monday to earn top spot.
Enzo Maresca’s side cruised to a 3-0 victory over Preston through Vardy’s brace and Kasey McAteer’s header, moving them to 97 points.
With one last milestone in their reach, Vardy wants to make sure they end an already successful season on a high.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “We can celebrate it tonight, but now we have another target which is 100 points.
“We are over the moon. It has gone by quick but it's a graft. Not many days off, I'll tell you that.
“The lads - they've given it all. Thoroughly deserved, and I'm glad we've had 5000 to come and celebrate with us. It's not like it's 20 minutes up the road."
After a run of just three victories from nine games in the league between mid-February and April, Leicester have now won each of their last three outings.
Maresca has praised his players for their hard work in what he labelled a “tough season”.
“Fantastic, it's been a fantastic season. The Championship is a tough season and very intense, but I'm very happy," said Maresca.
"Now it's time to enjoy the work of the season to bring this special club back to the Premier League. We deserve it.
“The last two days they have been fantastic. We got promoted, but it was difficult in game preparation. But we used all of today to prepare for the game, the morning and afternoon. It was good.”
Barcelona 4-2 Valencia: Lewandowski hat-trick leads Barca to 4-2 win over 10-man Valencia
Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski scored a second-half hat-trick to help his side fight back to claim a hard-fought 4-2 win over Valencia, who were leading 2-1 when they were reduced to 10 men just before the break.
Fermin Lopez's header from a Raphinha cross put Barca in front after 22 minutes, but Valencia's Hugo Duro struck in the 27th and Pepelu scored from the spot after a foul by Ronald Araujo 11 minutes later to give the visitors the lead.
But after Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili saw red for a handball outside the box before the break, Xavi's side dominated and Lewandowski scored with two headers from corners in the 49th and 82nd minutes before getting his treble with a free-kick in added time.
The win postponed Real Madrid's almost inevitable LaLiga title celebrations for a couple of weeks as Carlo Ancelotti's side sit atop the standings on 84 points.
Barcelona moved back to second in LaLiga on Monday with 73 points as they leapfrogged surprise package Girona, who are third with 71. Those two teams will meet in a Catalonia derby on Saturday.
Data debrief
Barcelona conceded two goals in the first half of a home game for the second time this season, after also doing so against Girona in LaLiga in December 2023.
However, Lewandowski's goals have been invaluable to La Blaugrana this season as he's earned 17 points with his 16 goals in the league.
Preston 0-3 Leicester City: Foxes seal Championship title in style
Leicester City cruised to a 3-0 win over Preston in the Championship on Monday to clinch the title with a game to spare.
Jamie Vardy was the star for the Foxes as he scored in both halves before Kasey McAteer made sure of the points with an unmarked header.
Abdul Fatawu had the chance to cap an already memorable night for the travelling fans but hit the post with his curler.
Preston slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat, while Leicester go into their final game against Blackburn Rovers with the knowledge that they will lift the trophy after the final whistle.
Data Debrief
Jamie Vardy has scored 18 goals this season (two in this game), more than any other Leicester player in the competition. He has also netted in his last three games, scoring four goals in total.
It was a dominant performance from the Foxes, who had 19 shots with 11 of those on target. At the other end, Preston only managed to test Jakub Stolarczyk once from their five attempts.
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