A Wes Hoolahan inspired Norwich stretched their unbeaten run to 10 games with victory over Wigan at Carrow Road.

Chris Hughton's men haven't tasted defeat in the Premier League since a trip to Chelsea at the start of October and are now daring to dream of Europe after moving up to seventh in the table, two points shy of a Champions League place.

The Latics, on the other hand, find themselves struggling at the wrong end of the table and remain in the bottom three after a fifth defeat in seven games leaves them precariously placed heading into Christmas.

An inability to contain the lively Hoolahan was a major factor in their fruitless trip to East Anglia and the 30-year-old was heavily involved as the Canaries broke the deadlock on the quarter hour.

Emerson Boyce got caught in two minds and was dispossessed by Hoolahan, who then picked out Anthony Pilkington's run with a brilliant through ball that allowed the winger to steady himself and lash the ball past  Ali Al-Habsi.

Pilkington then blasted wide after Al-Habsi fumbled a routine catch before the Latics keeper produced a superb one-handed save to prevent Robert Snodgrass' header from finding the corner.

The away side stepped up their game after the break and were level with six minutes of the restart as substitute Shaun Maloney angled his drive away from Mark Bunn after being set up by Arouna Kone.

It was their first away goal since Ben Watson's winner against Tottenham on 3 November and that increased momentum almost brought a second but Mauro Boselli couldn't covert Maloney's low cross.

And within 13 minutes Norwich were back in front. Pilkington beat Boyce on the left and delivered a pinpoint cross for Hoolahan to plant a firm header past Al-Habsi to secure a third league win in a row.