DANIEL FARKE’s belief in a “little miracle” at Norwich continued unabated at Tottenham on Wednesday night, despite an unlucky loss which kept them six points adrift of safety.

Citing the lack of key players — notably Emi Buendia, who leads in assists and attempted passes and tackles this campaign — City boss Farke said he was “unbelievably proud of the spirit of the lads and what they brought on the pitch — for that I can’t ask for more.”

Spurs went ahead through Dele Alli after 38 minutes, but Norwich built momentum in the second half until Teemu Pukki — patient as VAR lengthily re-lived Ryan Sessegnon’s assault on Max Aarons’s ankle — put his 70th-minute penalty past the palm of Hugo Lloris.

Ondrej Duda and Pukki soon conspired almost to let Todd Cantwell — at turns sparkling and erratic — strike home, but Norwich’s fate was sealed late on when Alli pinged a cross high off Aarons and in via Son Heung-min’s nodding head.

After the whistle, Farke avowed belief in his club’s project with optimism and certainty that is part-boardroom, part-spiritual.

“I’m here to work with a group of players who are unbelievably young,” he said. “Yes, their CV is not so impressive like some other CVs, but we try to get the best out of this group.”

“I think many people who work in this business can judge what we’re trying to do. We’re the only self-funding club, so we hardly spent any money during both transfer windows and everyone knows how difficult it is to work with such a young group.”

From the outside, the situation looks likely to get more difficult. Naturally taking home losses harder than these scraps on the road, they will soon host Newcastle before welcoming Liverpool, Leicester and a resurgent Southampton over the next couple of months.

But as to whether Norwich can stay up this season, Farke took no pause: “Yes. Because we all believe in miracles, otherwise we would have raised the white flag even before the beginning of the season.

“But miracles never just happen, you can’t just wait – you have to create them and you have to work for this.”

He said: “If we keep going then we definitely have a chance to work on a little miracle. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”