Chris Hughton is under no illusions Norwich City face a fight for their Premier League future after slipping to a late 1-0 defeat at Wigan.

Arouna Kone's 81st minute long range strike at the DW Stadium deceived Lee Camp to edge the Latics within four points of 14th-placed Norwich. Both Roberto Martinez's men and third-from-bottom Aston Villa have a game in hand on the Canaries - who have now won only one league game in their last 14 - but Hughton is pinpointing home tests against the likes of Villa, Reading and Swansea as the key to their survival prospects.

'It has certainly tightened up but we have seven left, four of those at home and for clubs like us we are always going to be stronger at home,' he said. 'That said, I thought we had done enough here to get a point. Sometimes when you go away from home you may have to hold your hands up and admit when you are beaten well. Anybody who saw that game today would not argue we certainly deserved a draw. It was just going to be about that one moment in the game. They had it, we didn't. For periods we had good control but one moment has beaten us. Very disappointing.'

Latics' counterpart Martinez hailed his side's fighting spirit after sealing a priceless win that moved them out of the relegation places ahead of Villa's Sunday test against Liverpool.

'I knew today beforehand this was going to be a really tricky fixture,' he said. 'Usually the game after the international break we are very sluggish. We had 13 players away and that makes it difficult from a physical point of view to perform. For that reason I don't think we were our normal self in possession. We weren't stylish but what we showed was an incredible character and we found a way to keep Norwich quiet. To restrict any team in the Premier League to no shots on target requires a massive effort. We then needed a bit of quality and the goal is as good a strike as you will see.'