Kenny McLean praised the feel-good factor at Norwich after his header was enough to seal victory at Wolves in the FA Cup fourth round and extend an upturn in form in the process.
With potential fairytales and cup magic up for grabs elsewhere, this was a forgettable meeting between two top-flight outfits, with the 1-0 win enough to put the Canaries into the fifth round for just the second time in a decade.
McLean’s looping header in first-half stoppage time sealed the victory in a drab contest at Molineux, with the hosts failing to create enough chances to force extra-time.
Norwich were bottom of the Premier League over Christmas and all-but written off in some quarters but have now won four of their last five games in all competitions.
That form has seen Norwich move out of the relegation zone and continue on in the FA Cup and McLean has been happy with the recent turnaround in results.
“It feels good to be winning games,” he told canaries.co.uk.
“Everything feels better when you winning so we have just got to continue doing that as much as we can.
“Cup competitions are quite special and you want to do as well as you can in them and I think you could see that, from the performance today, everybody was desperate to get the next win and it is good that we have managed to do that.
“We look at it as something to build on. We will be back in again tomorrow because we have got a game on Wednesday. So, we will recover tomorrow, and we will go again.”
That game comes at home to Crystal Palace as Dean Smith’s side aim to continue their survival bid.
Having made five changes in the Black Country, Smith now has a squad deep enough to give him options – something McLean believes is vital.
“As you saw, with Billy (Gilmour) and Mathias (Normann) coming back, the squad has been strengthened,” he said.
“They have been out for a long time, and they are big players for us. So the squad has strengthened over the break that we have had, which is good for us.
“We have got a fully fit squad now and competition for places is there. Nobody takes their place for granted so it is case of we need to keep performing at the highest level that we possibly can. That is what it is all about.”
Wolves boss Bruno Lage was disappointed to see his side exit the cup but is already looking ahead to Thursday’s visit of Arsenal.
“I think we have potential,” he said.
“We need some players, some players are out with injuries, we need everyone in the building to find some solutions, and I think we also have potential to do these things in the cup like we did in the past with Nuno.
“But we need to find solutions and today it was hard to find it, especially the players to play better inside the lines.
“That is our life, and now we will recover, give a lot of confidence for the players because what we did in the second half was much better, and to play our game against Arsenal on Thursday with a big confidence to continue what we are doing in the Premier League.”
