Former Norwich City stalwart Malky Mackay is confident the Canaries will win their Premier League survival fight.

Mackay has long been touted as a potential successor to Chris Hughton after his sour exit from Cardiff City earlier this season, but the Scot is backing Hughton to guide his old club to safety.

'I'd love to go back into the Premier League at some point. Absolutely,' he said. 'Norwich are a previous club of mine and they are in the Premier League. It's a club I know well, but I'm in no rush to take people's jobs right now – certainly not at this point in the season.

'Chris is under pressure from the media, but he's been through that before at Newcastle and handled himself immaculately. He's doing the exact same thing now. Invariably and generally, it's been a good stable club and I think they will stay in the Premier League again because they have a good squad of players there.'

Mackay also believes the Bluebirds have improved their own survival prospects with a timely 3-1 league win over fellow strugglers Fulham at the weekend.

'It was a terrific result against a team round about them there,' said Mackay, speaking on Sky Sports. 'There was a lot of pressure involved in that game and two or three of the lads really stepped up to the plate.

'It's given them that jump back into the little group above. There are seven or eight teams there that have to keep their nerve now. There's enough games and points to play for and four or five wins would do it. They've given themselves a great chance.'

Mackay fell out of favour with Cardiff's high-profile owner Vincent Tan after guiding the Welsh club to a League Cup final appearance along with Championship promotion.

'Initially Tien Ghee, who was the chairman and a really top guy, allowed the board of directors and our Welsh chief executives to run it over the first year and a half,' said Mackay.

'The owner's interest was piqued after the Carling Cup final and it grew from there. Certainly in the last year and a half there was much more interest from him rather than in the first year I was there. The three-year plan was revised and made into a two-year plan and they said 'Okay, now get promoted.' And that's what we did. The Championship is a tough struggle and you're battling against a lot of teams but we managed to get promoted.'