Norwich City: Special Marcelino Nunez Ipswich winner

The Canaries’ chief looked the coolest person inside Carrow Road when Nunez’s long range free kick deceived Vaclav Hladky.

Wagner put his arms to the sky before he was embraced by City's backroom staff, after a first half goal that sealed his first East Anglian derby win.

“The truth is I had a good feeling when Nacho took the ball,” said Wagner, when asked what was going through his mind when the Chilean’s free kick sparked bedlam at Carrow Road. “Seriously, and then I was not really surprised that he scored. I have a big belief in this group after everything I experienced with them. I think this group has a super strength.

"They went through the dark days and they got a lot of criticism. Some of the criticism deserved, a lot of the criticism wasn't deserved, and they always stuck together and fought together.

“If you went through the dark days, and then you are on such a run, where you come from, I don't know, 17th in the table, to attack the play-off spots with good performances as well, this makes something with you, and your belief, your bravery, your commitment. This is a super strength which this group has and which you need if you'd like to achieve something special.”

Wagner had urged his squad to bounce back from a lacklustre Easter Monday defeat at Leicester.

“We are on a good run but this group had some setbacks as well,” he said. “So we lost against Leeds, narrow defeat, bounced back, we lost against Boro, defeat, which hurt a lot with this red card incident, and bounced back and lost now against Leicester with not a good performance. We got criticised, we deserved to be criticised, but bounced back.

"This is a super strength that you are able to leave behind what you have done, make sure you are focused on the next one, and show what you are capable of. And this is something very special.”

Town rival Kieran McKenna felt Axel Tuanzebe’s first half collision with Josh Sargent was a key momentum-shifting moment, sparking a concerted spell of set piece pressure from Norwich which led to Nunez’s winner.

“From my view, I think the first one in the first half, I'm not quite sure if this was a foul. Second half, for me, it was a crystal clear penalty and red card,” said Wagner, referring to Sargent going down under Sam Morsy’s challenge in the second half, although television replays indicated the initial contact was outside the penalty area. “This is how I've seen it from my perspective. I know the referee has a different angle and a different view.

"I'm not sure if I'm right, but this is how I saw it watching the game live. But to be fair, I think the referee in general, apart from these two situations which I've not seen back, did a very good job, because he had a clear, strict line how we wanted to approach this game.

“You can go in one direction and you end up with 10 or 15 yellow cards, or in his direction, and this was straight. Everybody knew where they stood, and this is why I really have to praise his performance even if I have to say in these two situations, I think he wasn't great.”