John Ruddy would not let England down at the World Cup this summer, insists his Norwich City boss Chris Hughton.

The Canaries' keeper kept his 11th Premier League clean sheet in the 2-0 home win over Sunderland to help edge City seven points clear of the bottom three. Ruddy was a permanent fixture in Roy Hodgson's Three Lions' squad for the successful qualifying campaign and Hughton is convinced he deserves to go to Brazil.

The 27-year-old is locked in a battle with the likes of West Brom's Ben Foster, Celtic's Fraser Forster and Stoke's Jack Butland to provide back-up to Joe Hart.

'We're going to be biased of course but John has been very good,' said Hughton. 'He has kept a lot of clean sheets and I am sure Roy will make the right decision but I have every faith in John that if he needed to do a job at England level at any stage he is very, very capable.

'To pick up another clean sheet was important and I don't remember them having too many chances. They have good movement and players who can really threaten you so it was important we were strong defensively. We had to dig deep, but we have been good here at Carrow Road this year and we haven't conceded many goals.'

Hughton, speaking on Talksport, also praised the impact of City's home support who responded to pre-match calls to back the players against the Black Cats. The Norwich boss wants more of the same when they face the likes of West Brom and title-challenging Liverpool next month.

'It is important to get the crowd behind you and the club did the same initiative last season and it really does create a great atmosphere,' he said. 'At this stage it is about performances but anything we can do to rev it up around that is our responsibility.'