Norwich City boss Alex Neil hailed the courage of his players after they won their promotion playoff semifinal second-leg 3-1 against Ipswich Town.

The aggregate score was level at 1-1 from the first leg, but goals from Wes Hoolahan, Nathan Redmond and Cameron Jerome settled the result for Norwich.

Neil said: "I was surprised to hear people would think it would not be that tense, with what we were playing for in the biggest ever local derby, which is what I was being told," said Neil, who has overseen a fine run of form after he joined the club from Scottish Premiership side Hamilton in January.

"Everybody reminds us how good a squad we have got, and you could see the fans getting a bit agitated in the first half, but the message to the players was to keep calm and not listen to the supporters.

"When they went down to 10 men, Ipswich had nothing to lose, and we conceded a sloppy goal, which I was not best pleased with, but after that, it takes bottle because the pressure is then straight onto us with expectation to go and break them down.

"We showed good composure and quality to create chances and could have scored more."