Tim Krul felt proud of the way Norwich City’s players dealt with the pressure of a “must-win” game against survival rivals Bournemouth – singling out new signing Ondrej Duda for particularly high praise.
Krul kept his third clean sheet of the season as the Canaries brought an end to a run of nine games without a win, with Teemu Pukki's penalty earning the deserved victory at Carrow Road.
The much needed success reduced the gap to safety to six points and brought City within three points of the 19th placed Cherries, bringing Daniel Farke's team back into survival contention with 15 games to play.
"Everyone in the club and outside the club has been hoping for this win," said a visibly relieved Krul. "It makes life a lot easier for you guys (the local media) as well because I think we have been playing well, and you can only say so many times that we have been unlucky.
"It's nice that we dug one out. Everyone wrote that it was must-win and we felt in the changing room that it was. It's so nice that we've finally produced it against a team around us."
Hertha Berlin loanee Duda won the decisive penalty when his shot was intentionally handled by Steve Cook, earning the Bournemouth skipper a red card in the process.
"Lots of chances again, we should have buried the game a few times, but it doesn't make it less of a great feeling," Krul continued.
"This is what we needed, the push. We're just going to keep believing, we believe in each other because we've only let ourselves down two or three times the whole season.
"So I'm proud of them for getting the three points and also a big mention to Ondrej because it's not easy to come into a new club and play that well, he definitely showed a bit of quality."
The Dutchman continued: "He looked real quality. It's not easy if you haven't played for a month to come into the Premier League and show that kind of composure.
"When we were under pressure there were some high balls that he managed to get under control - and that's no disrespect to the ones who have been playing, totally not - but it's nice to add a bit of quality and this club is known for 'pulling one out of the hat'.
"He is one of them and Lukas (Rupp) the same, they seem really good lads and they've fitted straight in. That's not a given and I'm really pleased to add to the squad.
"The boss mentioned in the press about how good it was this week in training, everyone was right on it and there are some top players not even in the squad today.
"We're going to need everyone and we showed that."
The Holland international was impressed with Cook's save as well, tipping Duda's goal-bound shot on to the post in dramatic fashion in the 31st minute.
"It was a top save - a camera save I think!" Krul joked. "I was really happy that they had one sent off because that relieved the pressure on the back four, because they pressed well.
"But we showed some big, big confidence at the back as well because we kept believing, even though sometimes it was a bit risky, but we got through it."
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