Norwich head coach David Wagner feels his team are in a good place after watching them beat West Brom 2-0 at Carrow Road to stay on the fringes of the Championship play-off race.

The Canaries have bounced back from a poor run of form to lose just twice in 12 matches in all competitions and Wagner was full of praise for his in-form team afterwards.

Josh Sargent and Jon Rowe scored either side of the break as Norwich made it back-to-back league wins.

He said: “I thought it was a superb performance from the lads, they kept up a high level for the whole game.

“We scored two good goals, showed lots of energy throughout and also defended well to keep a clean sheet – there were a lot of good things out there and we are in a good place now and we will keep on pushing.

“Where it takes us I don’t know but what I can say is that we are moving in the right direction and are competitive in this division.”

Norwich moved up to eighth, just four points behind the fifth-placed Baggies, as a result of the hard-fought victory.

The Canaries were on the back foot for long periods but defended well and, unlike their opponents, made good use of two of the opportunities that came their way.

They made their first incisive attack of the game count on 13 minutes as Sargent latched onto Kenny McLean’s through ball and fired through Alex Palmer’s poor attempt at a save.

The all-important second arrived in the 71st minute, Rowe making it 13 for the season by finishing off a slick move involving Gabriel Sara and Dimi Giannoulis.

Wagner knows the well-taken goal will only increase speculation linking Rowe with a move to a higher level but he said: “There are no signs, no indications he will move this month. I am confident he will be with us at the end of the month.

“His performance today was at a high level, the same as all the players – he went close twice in the first half, scored a good goal in the second and his energy was great throughout. He is an excellent young player but there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Baggies boss Carlos Corberan was disappointed to see his side leave Carrow Road empty-handed.

He said: “It is important we feel the pain of this defeat because only then can we have the desire to improve and put things right.

“We had some good chances in this match, especially in the second half.

“Had we taken one of those right at the start of the half it might have been a different outcome. We just needed to be a lot more clinical in front of goal.

“If you don’t take your chances you are not going to win football matches and that is something we need to work on.

“It is very frustrating because we knew what the game would be like. They are a good side and we knew they would be a threat on transitions.

“That is what happened and we needed to defend them a lot better.”

David Wagner has “no concern” about the possibility of Jon Rowe leaving Norwich this month after the young winger underlined why he is so highly-rated with a moment of magic at Hull.

Rowe has reportedly been courting interest from West Ham and Aston Villa and the 20-year-old took his tally for the season to a dozen in all competitions with a fabulous solo goal at the MKM Stadium.

After dispossessing Tyler Morton, Rowe jinked forwards then ghosted past a couple of defenders before dispatching a shot with the outside of his right boot, which arced past Ryan Allsop and into the net.

While he helped Norwich record a 2-1 victory to move to within two points and places of the Sky Bet Championship play-offs, interest in Rowe may now increase following his latest star showing.

But when asked how hard it will be to keep hold of Rowe in this transfer window, Wagner said: “I have no concern that there is any problems.”

The Norwich manager was impressed with the overall display of a player who only made his first senior start in the reverse fixture at the outset of the season in August – which the Canaries also won 2-1.

Wagner added: “Obviously the goal was great, this is what he can produce. We have seen this a few times this season. I liked it a lot but what I liked as well was how he worked and defended.

“The effort and the shift he put in defensively for the team was technically very smart. He really supported his full-back, it was a good performance from him.

“If you consider he’s quite young and he made his first senior start at the beginning of the season, it makes it more interesting.”

Christian Fassnacht, who replaced Rowe in the closing stages, struck in the 88th minute and even though Morton’s injury-time screamer set up a grandstand finale, Norwich clung on for a first win of 2024.

After Hull slipped to a fourth defeat in five matches and missed out on a chance to move into the top six, boss Liam Rosenior admitted his frustration with referee Andrew Kitchen.

Norwich defender Dimitrios Giannoulis was perhaps lucky to avoid a red card moments before Rowe’s 36th-minute opener after swinging an arm at Lewie Coyle, while Aaron Connolly was substituted earlier having suffered a concussion.

A collision with visiting goalkeeper Angus Gunn left Connolly needing treatment before he was withdrawn after a quarter of an hour but what especially irked Rosenior was that Norwich were awarded a free-kick from the incident.

Rosenior said: “I can understand why the goalkeeper’s come out, I don’t know if you can punish him because they’re both going for the ball but it’s clearly our free-kick at the least.

“For us to be penalised for that pretty much sums up how I feel the refereeing decisions have gone against us this season. I thought his performance helped them in every aspect of the game.

“We wanted to play football, we wanted to restart the game, they wanted to slow the game down and make tactical fouls and the referee bought every single one.”