Norwich head coach Daniel Farke spoke of his pride and joy after seeing his side clinch promotion to the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackburn at Carrow Road.
All three goals came in the opening 23 minutes, with Marco Stiepermann and Mario Vrancic putting the Canaries in charge before Lewis Travis pulled onel back for Rovers.
Norwich had numerous chances to put the game to bed in the second half but, although they failed to add to their tally, they had done enough to win the game and a return to the top flight.
Farke said: “It’s a moment full of happiness, full of pride and it’s fantastic, world class. All the words are definitely right because this feeling is amazing and we know that we made history today and have achieved something really extraordinary.
“For me, the Championship is, without doubt, the toughest league in the world; so many games and each and every game is very close.
“When you are one of the top two teams then you deserve it, especially under this financial pressure with so many young lads – the consistency and performance was outstanding.”
Norwich finished 14th last season before undergoing major personnel changes in the summer with several star names sold to help balance the books and a host of new faces arriving.
However, the Canaries have been rewarded with a promotion-winning campaign by a young, hungry side which has played some of the most attractive football in the division.
While Farke and his players will take most of the credit, the German was keen to praise the role of Norwich’s joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones, as well as sporting director Stuart Webber.
Farke said: “I think how much we grew during this season, we had so much financial pressure on this club, we had to sell some of our best players.
“We tried to be creative in our recruitment, also to bring many lads from our academy in. I just want to praise our key people, Delia, Michael and Stuart Webber – I think they are really responsible for which direction the club is going in.”
Norwich still have the chance to win the Championship title and while Farke hopes they will do that against Aston Villa next weekend, he wants his players to enjoy winning promotion first and foremost.
He added: “It is great that we finished the season in style, in front of our own fans with all the players here, because the togetherness of the squad has been very important.
“I think we deserved that. We could have won this game 8-1, something like that. It was a fantastic performance and a fantastic achievement to get promotion.
“Now it is all about celebrating. It is important that when you have a good reason to celebrate you make the most of it, so I have told my players to make the most of it – these things don’t come around too often and they will now have a few days off to enjoy it.
“For the moment the final game can wait. Obviously we want to win the title, but it is not in my mind today, we have the most important prize.
“And I don’t want to start think about playing against the teams of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp – that can wait too!”
Norwich had to be content with a narrow win after dominating the match from start to finish.
A rout look on the cards when they went 2-0 up inside 20 minutes, with Stiepermann drilling the ball home from just outside the area and Vrancic firing a magnificent second into the top corner from 30 yards out.
Blackburn immediately pulled one back through a cool finish from Travis but it continued to be all Norwich after that and countless good chances came and went as the match ended 2-1 – which was still plenty good enough for the hosts.
Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray was full of praise for his promoted opponents, saying: “We were up against a good Norwich side tonight, a side that I think will do OK in the Premier League if they are brave and keep playing the way they do.
“Obviously they will be up against better teams but they have recruited well, bringing in some really good footballers, some that no-one had really heard of, and have got their reward.
“That’s what it is all about, recruitment, and hopefully we can follow their example and add some extra creativity to this squad to go with the togetherness and spirit we have here, which is good as any team in this league.”
