Alan Irvine warns Norwich City’s Championship promotion rivals not to write off the Canaries after a 2-0 Barnsley win

Irvine is yet to be told if he will remain in charge over the international break after fulfilling his short-term brief with a hard-fought victory against the Reds.

Jacob Murphy opened the scoring before Angus MacDonald's inadvertent deflection doubled City's lead to cash in on slip ups for the likes of Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday and Preston over the weekend.

Norwich go into the international break five points behind the sixth-placed Owls.

'It is terrific to get the three points and the clean sheet. It is a reflection of the hard work the lads have put in during the week,' said Irvine. 'Really pleased for them and the club and if it is my last one then a good one to finish. The instruction I got the Friday before last was quite simple - could I take these two games and look after the training and we'll have a conversation afterwards. That is where we are. I would expect to hear about next week in the next day or two. I am expecting to be here come Monday morning. I haven't been told otherwise.

'I said last week about the number of points we had to play for and when you look at each one in isolation I feel they are games we can win if we perform well. The more we get, the more pressure we put on the teams above us. I don't think anyone would have expected the three teams above us to drop points. It gave us the chance to close the gap on two and leapfrog Preston. We are in a better position than before kick-off. If we can do that several times between now and the end of the season who knows how close we can get.

'Some people were not really too sure to believe me when I said there was still a chance. One thing I know about working in this league is you do not get points where you sometimes think you might get them. It is extremely tough and any team that goes on a good run between now and the end of the season can make a huge difference to where they finish in the league.'