Norwich City latest: Danny Batth admission, David Wagner reaction, Jonathan Rowe news | OneFootball

Norwich City have started to turn a corner, as the international break was sandwiched between two much-needed victories against Cardiff City and QPR - their first home success since September 30th.

It was another one-goal margin of victory that did the trick for David Wagner's men, as Hwang Ui-jo's 21st-minute strike was enough to seal back-to-back three points against Marti Cifuentes' outfit.

As we now approach a week which sees the Canaries in Championship action on two further occasions, Football League World rounds up the latest news coming out of Carrow Road.

One man who's had to wait patiently for his opportunity to feature in Yellow and Green on a consistent basis is central defender and summer arrival, Danny Batth.

The 33-year-old joined from fellow top-six hopefuls Sunderland late in the transfer window, but had only racked up 4 minutes of Championship football prior to starting in the win at Cardiff, and he made his own admission about the strength in depth within the squad after his first Carrow Road outing.

"There are good players here, which is good for me because it means that I've got to be at my best every day," He told the PinkUn.

"It challenges me every day and I've had to be patient, but if I get an opportunity it's about how I wait and how I prepare myself when that opportunity comes along.

Batth believes that his professionalism may be what caught the eye of his head coach to slot him into the starting XI, and hopes like the rest of his teammates, that the two victories will enable the side to regain their swagger which was seen at the beginning of the season.

"I think the gaffer's seen from the way I conduct myself around the place that I'm always ready and I'm prepared to play whenever I'm needed.

"I'm hoping to build on this form, and obviously a run of games for me would get me to my top level." He added further.

"Then I'm confident at this level that I'll be a good player for this club. Obviously I've had a few cameos, but this was my first start at home. It's one of those where you want to tick your first one off. Let's go forward and build on that."

David Wagner hails defensive solidity in 1-0 win

The pressure had mounted significantly on Wagner after a torrid run of results in October in particular, with the win in South Wales alleviating some of it from the German's shoulders before backing up that comeback with a steady victory on home turf, in which the head coach believed his players "worked their socks off".

"I'd like to pass the congratulations over to the players," He told Norwich's official website.

"They've done it, they worked their socks off and I'm delighted for them. How they defended today, we clearly set that.

The victory marked City's first clean sheet since September 30th in a 2-0 victory over Birmingham, which Wagner states was a priority heading into the encounter.

"Everyone can see that after 16 games, the goals that we've conceded is something we dramatically need to improve on.

"We've spoken about it a lot, we've worked on it and to play the first game after an international break with a clean sheet and how the players worked to keep the ball out of the goal, it was just fantastic." Wagner continued.

"I think we've done well with game management in the last five, 10 minutes plus stoppage time. But in general, this isn't the most entertaining game we've seen this season but it was one of the most important ones for us because we have to make sure we play a little less entertaining and defend more solidly."

Injury update on Canaries top scorer

Jonathan Rowe has enjoyed a strong start to the 2023/24 season from a personal point of view, with eight goal contributions in 16 appearances for Norwich.

Despite the victory over Rangers on Saturday, it can't be underestimated that they missed someone of Rowe's calibre in the starting lineup, after he sustained an ankle problem whilst training with England's U21's last week.

After failing a fitness test ahead of the weekend's fixture, Wagner was able to provide a minor update on whether he'll be available to face Watford on Tuesday night.

"Jonny Rowe still has problems with his heel. This is something that is very difficult to predict because you can't do anything apart from offloading him and it will heal," he said, "Will it take two days? Will it take 20 days? Nobody knows. You cannot do anything. No injection or anything."

"He made a test on Friday, but he was not able to make it, and we have to look from day to day as to whether it is good enough for him to be back in the race."

Back-to-back victories have seen Norwich move up to 13th place in the league table after 17 games, as they now sit just five points behind the play-offs in what is a very congested division so far.

As previously mentioned, the Canaries are straight back into Championship action this midweek to face Watford at Vicarage Road.