Dean Smith insisted the pressure of halting Norwich City’s Premier League decline was not getting to him.

The Canaries’ chief plotted back-to-back wins over Everton and Watford ahead of the current mid-winter break to haul City out of the bottom three.

That broke a spell of six league defeats without scoring that tested the former Walsall, Brentford and Aston Villa boss.

“It was a difficult period, that’s for sure,” he said. “I don’t think you can get away from the pressure, it’s always going to be there. Pressure is a privilege at times and it’s how you control yourself and your feelings and your emotions under that pressure.

“If you can maximise your clearest thoughts during those periods, then you get better performances. And that’s what we looked to do. I didn’t worry it was going to turn around, I was worried the fact that we had so many out injured and ill. That was a problem. It did concern me that we were picking up so many injuries.

“I was looking to see if there was any sign of a change in the training load that we had brought in from being a new management group. But a lot of them were just injuries and illness that you can’t account for really. And that was disappointing. I knew once we started getting players back, fortunes would change again.

“When we got the likes of Grant (Hanley), Teemu (Pukki), Tim (Krul), who we have just lost again, back we knew we would get stronger.”

Smith, who has never been relegated in his coaching career, drew on all his experience to keep his depleted squad upbeat.

“You have to believe in your processes that you put in place. I’ve got full belief in them because they’ve worked before, and you go on past experiences,” he said. “We keep driving the processes for the players, and then it’s about putting them into practice.

“I saw bits and pieces that I liked at West Ham. Not enough in the final third, because we got into some really good areas, but never actually created big chances. But we put that right in the next two games.

“The longer you are here, the more you get to know about each other and you become more comfortable around each other. I’m certainly feeling that around the building now. I think the players understand what I’m about and I’ll try and remain as consistent as I can, day in day out, and not change any behaviour.

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘contentment’ but just being comfortable with each other is certainly helpful.”