Chris Lakey The war is over, the battles are won and, finally, Norwich City fans can relax. A sell-out crowd - the biggest of the season - willed the Canaries to a 3-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers at a sun-drenched Carrow Road to secure the club's Championship status with one match remaining.

Chris Lakey

The war is over, the battles are won and, finally, Norwich City fans can relax.

A sell-out crowd - the biggest of the season - willed the Canaries to a 3-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers at a sun-drenched Carrow Road to secure the club's Championship status with one match remaining.

It was a day in which fans and players alike rode wave after wave of emotion, with Dion Dublin and possibly Darren Huckerby saying their final home farewells to their loyal followers.

But in the end this was about more than two players; this was about a football club that may just have rescued itself from the brink of disaster, a club that boasts some of the most loyal fans in the country yet found itself just 90 minutes from an ignominious drop into League One.

Instead, they live to fight another day and to enjoy the moment - before their knight in shining armour, Glenn Roeder, begins the second part of his rebuilding programme by turning Norwich City from chumps into champions.

Roeder has rubbed shoulders with the best during his times as manager at Newcastle and West Ham, but says that saving City from relegation ranks up there with his best moments.

“Probably the best,” was his summation. “I have had a few results I didn't like but I have had lots of good results, and this is probably the nicest result. I just hope that what I said after we lost 3-0 at Plymouth will end up over a period of time being the truth - that this is going to be the toughest job I've ever had but in the end it's going to be the best job I've ever had.

“It is just a brilliant day for anyone connected with Norwich City. We don't want to be celebrating like we have done and are probably going to for a couple of days - the players and probably the supporters - because we have stayed up in the Championship.“But such was the position we found ourselves in in the first week of November, it is only right I think that supporters and players and everyone at Norwich City does celebrate for a couple of days.

“But this is only the first part of our goal - and that is to make sure we are playing Championship football next year, which we are going to.”