Chris Hughton has been reflecting on his proudest moment in management after guiding Norwich to English Premier League survival.
The Canaries claimed an emphatic 4-0 win over West Brom at Carrow Road on Sunday to ensure their fate will not depend on next weekend’s final day of the season.
“It means absolutely everything,” said former Newcastle and Birmingham boss Hughton.
“I’m not the most outwardly emotional person, but I’m chewing up inside.
“It’s certainly my most satisfying (achievement), because of the pressure of the day.
“For this club, for this moment and the pressure on this game, this would probably be my proudest moment.”
Robert Snodgrass gave the Canaries a halftime lead, a Ben Foster howler gifted Grant Holt a second, the third was an own-goal from former Ipswich defender Gareth McAuley and Jonny Howson scored a spectacular late fourth.
“I thought we were excellent from the first minute right through to the 93rd minute,” said Hughton, following a third win in 20 games.
“I’m incredibly relieved. We’ve embarked on a tough season, we’ve had some good periods in that season.
“We’ve found it difficult since Christmas to get the right formulas to win us football matches.
“On a day that it really counted, it was arguably our best performance of the season.”
West Brom manager Steve Clarke was left frustrated by his side’s performance.
Speaking after the match, he said: “We’ve been terrific this season, today we were the opposite. We were really poor.”
The Baggies’ season concludes against Manchester United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1500th and final game in charge of the champions.
Clarke said: “Sometimes when you have a terrible performance the best thing to do is to play against the champions. I think next week the performance will be better.”
As well as a farewell to Ferguson, Sunday’s match is also likely to be Peter Odemwingie’s last involvement as a West Brom player.
The Nigeria forward came on as a substitute late on after a second half of the season in which his Twitter tirades have been an unwanted distraction and Clarke expects him to leave this summer.
The West Brom boss said: “His future will be decided in the summer. I don’t think he’ll be here next season.”