Fulham manager Felix Magath has praised the decision of the Norwich City board to sack Chris Hughton with just five matches of the Premier League season remaining.

The German boss only took over at Craven Cottage in February, replacing Rene Meulensteen, and welcomes the Canaries to west London on Saturday with his team five points adrift of them in the table.

The relegation six-pointer is crucial to City's survival hopes as following Fulham they have home matches against Liverpool and Arsenal either side of trips to Manchester United and Chelsea.

Youth team manager Neil Adams has been promoted to first-team duty after Hughton was sacked following a very poor 1-0 loss to West Brom at Carrow Road last Saturday.

Magath, who has previously managed Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, feels the decision makes Norwich a difficult proposition for his team.

'For us it doesn't matter who we play but Norwich have a very bad schedule. They have very, very difficult games,' the 60-year-old told the Daily Express.

'They changed manager now and that will give them new energy so we have to be careful. They will fight for 90 minutes and it will not be an easy game for us.

'You can never say what happened at another club but they took a manager who knows everything in the club so I think it was for them to change.

'I think it was a very good decision for them but maybe it is too late.'

Adams has had only this week to try and raise the spirits of the City squad but Magath expects the former City player will have his team highly motivated for the match.

Magath added: 'Now as a manager you can't do a lot of things. It is only a question of the atmosphere – not of training sessions or tactics.

'I think he has a chance – the new man coming from the youth team – has a chance of getting a response from the team.'