Norwich City fans raised the roof of Carrow Road at the weekend, with noise levels higher than much larger grounds to help move the club closer to Premier League safety.

The crowd backed the EDP and Evening News's Yell Army campaign and banged their souvenir clap banners on Saturday to create a rousing atmosphere to inspire the team to beat bottom of the table Reading 2-1 to ease relegation fears.

Players, officials and ex-players praised the atmosphere after average decibel levels were recorded as being higher than those at home games against the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, and Manchester City.

A Norwich City Council environmental health officer monitored noise levels during the game, which recorded the average decibel level during the first half as 91 decibels (dB) and 93dB during the second half.

The loudest cheers came at the start of the second half when the decibel levels went up to 112dB, when Ryan Bennett scored and the noise level peaked at 116dB when winger Elliott Bennett put the Canaries 2-0 up. Fans were left biting their nails for the last 15 minutes when Reading pulled a goal back, but the team held on for a crucial win.

Emily Capps, who was monitoring the noise in the Jarrold stand, said: 'To put these figures into context, a quiet room at night is 20dB, a pneumatic drill operates at 100dB and a rock concert would be approximately 115dB.

'A season ticket holder sitting near us said 'the crowd is nervous today so a bit quiet, but if we score that will change' and it certainly did!'

Norwich City's Premier League fortunes were looking much brighter following the win as fans got behind the Yell Army campaign to create a cauldron of noise at Carrow Road.

More than 26,000 fans banged their souvenir clap banners – sponsored by the EDP and Norwich Evening News – and the crowd was in fine voice to act as the 12th man in the crunch match.

Under 18 players from Norwich City's victorious FA Youth Cup semi-final winning team, who wore #Yellarmy on the back of their shirts, helped lead a roaring rendition of On the Ball City that echoed across the sun-kissed city ahead of kick-off.

Fans' favourites Darren Eadie, Darren Huckerby, and Dion Dublin were also present to help ramp up the atmosphere around the ground and joint majority shareholder Delia Smith got into the spirit by waving her clap banner.

After the game, the players took to social networking site Twitter to praise the fans.

On-loan striker Kei Kamara said: 'That felt very good. There was amazing support from everyone out there today. Wow, what an atmosphere.'

Spanish left-back Javier Garrido added: 'Great victory, great step forward from the team, great spirit and great support.'

Former Norwich striker Darren Huckerby added: 'Fans were superb today, helped get us over the line, think we are as good as safe!'