Surviving Norwich City's early onslaught was key to victory at Carrow Road, Baggies boss Tony Pulis admitted in the aftermath of his side's 1-0 success.

Wes Hoolahan, Jonny Howson and Nathan Redmond all went close in the first half for the Canaries before the visitors took control of proceedings and then the lead through a Salomon Rondon header soon after half-time.

'I thought first quarter on a hour Norwich were very good, and I thought the support that they've got and they receive was absolutely first class, they were sucking the ball down our end,' the former Stoke City manager, pictured, said.

'But we defended well, Bo's (Boaz Myhill) made a really good save but as the game went on we got a grip of it and we were really disappointed at half-time not to come in ahead – I think (Craig) Dawson's header, Salomon's header as well.

'The free-kick, the one we've worked round the side, we think it's a penalty, I think Salomon's been held back and not been able to get to where he wanted to.

'So we had good chances, the quality of our play was very, very good at times and we deserved to win the game.'

Keeping the hosts at bay earned Albion a sixth clean sheet in 10 league games, much to Puils' delight.

However the Welshman preferred to focus on the attacking threat posed by his players against Alex Neil's team.

'The players do a lot of work on the training ground, we work very hard on certain aspects,' he continued.

'We talk about it more because of the record I've got but we also work hard going forward and today we got our reward.

'I've always been a manager who likes to play wide players and we had (Stephane) Sessegnon and (James) McClean, who was absolutely outstanding, his energy levels and his quality into the box was first class and he's got better and better as we've gone on.

'I was really pleased. The back four and the goalkeeper are jumping up and down about another clean sheet but I was more pleased with the quality going forward.'

The crucial goal was scored by £12million summer signing Rondon, a Venezuelan international, scoring just his second goal in eight Premier League games since his switch from Zenit St Petersburg.

The tall 26-year-old will be on international duty following Saturday's home clash with Leicester though, as Venezuela face Bolivia in the South American section of World Cup qualifying.

'Salomon goes to Venezuela or wherever he goes and it's 22 hours, 23 hours he's flying,' Pulis moaned. 'He's a national hero over there, he does everything that he needs to do, because he has to, and I just don't think he's had the time to come back and rest and then pick up his performances and you struggle a bit with that.

'But in training you only have to watch him, he's got real quality, his movement is very, very good and we think he'll score lots of goals but unfortunately he's going away for another two weeks in November, so there we are. But we knew that when we bought him so we have to accept it.'