Dean Smith had his say on some of the key issues around Norwich City's 1-0 Championship win at Blackpool.

Teemu Pukki's first half strike secured the win and extended the Canaries' unbeaten league run to eight games.

The Canaries' boss held his post-match press call on Saturday afternoon at Bloomfield Road.

This is what Smith had to say on the following.

Overall verdict

In that period from Teemu's goal to half-time we should have put the game to bed. I thought it was some of our best play in how we opened them up, we hit the post, we hit the bar, Grant (Hanley) had a free header. The keeper has made good saves from Teemu, Sarge (Josh Sargent) and others.

But at this level you know the opposition always have a sniff. We had to hold on, we had to show a fighting spirit in that last 20 minutes. But the spell before half-time is what we have been searching for.

I said to the players afterwards it will feel like a hard-fought win, but we didn't have the group for two weeks due to the international period so they have showed exceptional spirit. We have some players who featured on the back of playing two and three games for their countries.

Marcelino Nunez's display

Really good. He has been away playing for Chile but you can see he just loves playing football. It is there in his body language and the way he is with a smile always on his face. We have to drag him off the training ground.

Him and Gabby (Sara) have settled in really well and they are an integral part of the squad. That is so important.

The deadly Pukki

He is as good as any in this league in those situations. When he went through I don't think anyone really believed he wasn't going to punish them. It was the opposite at the other end when I think Andrew (Omobamidele) made a mistake but we had defenders who could get back and recover. It changes the game and the mindset.

We wanted more control with the ball. Some of our play in that period after Teemu's goal was really good.

Todd Cantwell absence

He felt his quad when we did some set piece training on Thursday afternoon. We don't think it is too much but with so many games coming it would have been too much of a risk.