Norwich City’s ‘world class’ surge has blown away Championship rivals - now Daniel Farke wants his squad to finish the job.

The Canaries return to action at Preston on Friday within touching distance of the Premier League, after claiming 28 points from the 30 available prior to the international break.

City have an eight-point lead over Watford, with a 14-point cushion to third-placed Swansea, albeit the Swans have one game in hand.

Farke has heralded a special run even if City missed out on a club record equalling 10th straight league win following the 1-1 draw against Blackburn last time out.

City’s response since a February defeat at Swansea, and then briefly losing top spot to Brentford, bears all the hallmarks of potential champions.

“You have to say overall what the lads have done in the last weeks and months is world class,” said Farke, who now faces an anxious wait over the coming 24 hours to see if all his international contingent return fit and healthy for the Deepdale test. “To have 28 points out of the last 10 games, you must label this world class.

"That is a fact. Once the Blackburn disappointment went they can be pretty proud of what they achieved. But there is still work to do.

“I would have preferred to finish with 18 wins in a row but this is the Championship. I would love to have been sat on 85 points and 10 wins in a row after Blackburn. But we know what we want to achieve and we are getting closer.”

Preston inflicted Norwich's only league defeat on the run in at this stage when they previously won the title two seasons ago. But ex-Canaries' boss Alex Neil was dismissed prior to the international break with his long time assistant, Frankie McAvoy, placed in temporary charge.

Farke expects another difficult Championship test.

“In the Championship you face many different opponents, many different challenges. You have to show a different mindset from game to game,” he said. “Against Luton we dominated from first to last, against Sheffield and Nottingham they both dropped deeper and tried to make it harder that way. Against Blackburn they pressed with so much intensity.

"When you are used to winning so many matches then it is normal to feel disappointment when you draw a game, but we didn’t need any reminder how tough this league is.

"We know we need more points to bring this over the line. Even when they equalised we showed a good reaction and could have won that game. Sometimes you have to accept the draw at this level.”