Not even Christian Kabasele's red card 25 minutes from time could prevent Watford from securing the three points.

Midfielder Hughes told his side's official website: "It was more relief than anything.

"We have worked hard all season, but the table does not lie and we were not good enough.

"But we came to a tricky place, they were under pressure as well, and going down to 10 men with 20 minutes to go everyone was on edge. But we dug in and showed a lot of character."

Defender Craig Dawson felt the triumph was deserved.

"It's a great feeling and it is reward for all the hard work in recent weeks," he said.

"We have not quite had the results so I am just happy for all the lads for all the hard work, and of course the fans were great today."

Onel Hernandez, who had Norwich's best chance of the game in the first half, insisted the Canaries will continue to fight after they slipped to the bottom of the table.

Speaking to the club website, the 26-year-old said: "We controlled the game and were the better side. We made some mistakes and they are punished in this league.

"Mistakes can happen. We kept going after conceding the goals and got some control in the game. We created a lot of chances but in the end we didn't score.

"They scored the second goal and that's how it works in this league. If you don't score and the opposition have one chance, they score.

"We have to stick together, get closer and think about what we can do better.

"We don't want to change much because, for me, we had a good game. It was just the mistakes that made the difference."