Norwich continued their rapid climb up the Sky Bet Championship table as they edged past visitors Birmingham 2-1 to make it three wins in four league games.
First-half goals from Oscar Schwartau - with a real screamer - and Papa Diallo - his first for the club - saw off a strong challenge from Blues, for whom a second-half effort from Carlos Vicente was scant consolation.
The Spaniard wasted a glorious chance to equalise near the end as Chris Davies' men slipped to their first league defeat of the season in a game they should have taken something from on the balance of play.
Birmingham had the better of the early exchanges at Carrow Road and thought they had taken the lead in the 22nd minute when Liam Miller popped up at the back post to convert.
But their joy was cut short by the assistant's flag going up for offside, with replays showing it was an extremely tight decision.
Jay Stansfield had earlier brought a good reaction save out of Vladan Kovacevic after being played in by Miller, but it was Norwich who took the lead in the 28th minute with a real cracker of a goal.
There seemed little danger when Schwartau picked up the ball in a central area but the young Dane had other ideas, advancing to the edge of the D before lashing an unstoppable right-footed drive past James Beadle.
It was the Canaries' first effort of note of the game - and they made their second count as well to double their advantage in the 39th minute.
This time Andre Brooks got to the right byline and had time to look up and pick out and unmarked Diallo to sidefoot home the simplest of goals.
Birmingham missed a decent chance to pull one back just before the break when Miller fired just over after good work by Stansfield, leaving Norwich in command of a match which had seen them on the back foot for much of the half.
After a scrappy start to the second period Birmingham got themselves back in the game after 64 minutes with a well-worked goal. Millar was the architect, working himself some space on the left before squaring for Vicente to slide home from just outside the six-yard box.
With 20 minutes remaining, Norwich welcomed striker Jovon Makama back after seven months on the sidelines but it was midfielder Pelle Mattsson who almost restored their two-goal advantage with a low shot which brought a brilliant save out of Beadle.
Vicente wasted a glorious chance to level five minutes from time after being handed a clear sight of goal by Stansfield before Beadle foiled Anthony Musaba at point-blank range.
Norwich boss Philippe Clement:
"We were up against a team who are very direct, a team who have won the most headed duels in the Championship this season, so it was important that we stepped up to the challenge.
"I am delighted to say that all the players did that. I think the fans could see they were giving everything out there to get the result we all wanted.
"At times we were able to play our football but we had to win our battles too. It is a really important step in the journey we are taking with this club.
"It is not the sort of football I like to see too much but I am delighted with the result. We have a really good group of players here, I love them all, and I feel they can do something special."
Birmingham boss Chris Davies:
"In my 118 games in charge I can't remember feeling so disappointed with the officials as I am tonight. So many decisions went against us.
"We started really well and scored a goal from an onside position so I have been told.
"I hate VAR re-refereeing games for fouls because that is subjective, but offside is objective, you are either on or off, and I think it should be used in this league for incidents like that.
"Having said that we have to take responsibility for the next 15 minutes when we were far too open and conceded two goals that were far too easy for them.
"In the end that gave us too much to do but outside that spell we kept on going, got a deserved goal and might have got an equaliser at the end but unfortunately it wasn't to be."
