Make no mistake, this set of Norwich City players are well and truly behind their manager.

Yet again, when he needed it most, Chris Hughton’s side mustered a performance and a result that may have saved his job.

The game ended with chief executive David McNally, the man who last week admitted the club were considering candidates to replace Hughton, in tears.

Indeed, it has been an emotional few days for McNally following the death of a close family member and the furore over his musings on Hughton’s job security.

It has been a tough time for Spurs manager Tim Sherwood too as his side’s chase of fourth-placed Liverpool, who had earlier beaten Swansea, suffered a serious blow.

But ex-Tottenham coach Hughton won’t have lost any sleep over his former employers’ woes last night — he has his own problems.

After a run of one win in nine, Hughton was the sack-race front-runner when his side swept West Ham aside on November 9.

The axe loomed again last month after a run of eight games without a victory, but beating Hull City on January 18 again kept Hughton in a job. And then came yesterday — a fully deserved 1-0 win thanks to a sumptuous left-foot shot from Robert Snodgrass just after half-time.

‘Losing my job is not something I’ve thought about,’ said Hughton.

‘I always focus on the game. This feels like a big win. As manager you have to go with the ups and downs, highs, lows and disappointments and get on with the job.

‘There were also a lot of positives that he (McNally) said in that interview that were not picked out. It’s part and parcel.’ If Hughton wasn’t thinking about losing his role ahead of kick-off yesterday, then he could well have been at half-time.

The first half was woeful. Ricky van Wolfswinkel continued his poor opening season in English football. In the third minute he failed to get any purchase on a close-range header as Spurs failed to deal with Bradley Johnson’s corner.

And Spurs were non-existent as an attacking entity, with Emmanuel Adebayor starved of any decent service.

The visitors were duly punished two minutes after the break after Nabil Bentaleb’s carelessness in midfield was pounced upon by Johnson. The midfielder played a simple pass into the path of Snodgrass, who beautifully placed his shot past Hugo Lloris from just outside the penalty area.

Carrow Road erupted, as did Hughton, who knew how important that goal — Norwich’s first in 312 minutes of football — was.

Now Hughton’s side needed to be resolute to withstand the Spurs response, and he had John Ruddy to thank in the 60th minute as the goalkeeeper denied Adebayor after a dreadful Sebastien Bassong mistake.

Roberto Soldado was introduced in the 65th minute and by the 67th minute the struggling Spaniard had missed two excellent chances to equalise before Nacer Chadli was thwarted by the impressive Ruddy nine minutes from time.

Norwich were holding on, just.

And Hughton would have been fearing the worst when Johnson’s thunderous free-kick crashed off the underside of the bar, but not over the line, in the 84th minute. He needn’t have worried, though, as the Canaries held on for a vital victory in their battle for survival.

Sherwood, meanwhile, will wake up this morning knowing he must somehow claw back a six-point gap to Liverpool in Tottenham’s crusade to clinch the final Champions League slot.

‘Yes, the gap to Liverpool looks big, this is a real blow to us,’ admitted the Spurs manager.

‘We’ve just got to get on with our job, we can’t rely on other teams losing every game for us to qualify for the Champions League, it’s not going to happen.’

—Daily Mail