Two goals in three second-half minutes from Ryan Bennett and Elliott Bennett earned the Canaries just a second win in 17 Premier League games to see Hughton's men move seven points clear of 18th-placed Wigan with four games to play.
With Stoke and Sunderland also winning, it was crucial for Norwich to take three points. Hughton said: "We needed it. There are teams around us that are all capable of winning games. How it will end up in the end, numbers wise, I don't know, but at the moment this feels like a big win for us."
He added: "I think it will take more points. I've always thought around that 40-mark and I think there are teams around us that are still very capable of winning games. I do think it will take more, but three points today has been a big help towards where we want to go."
Reading, meanwhile, sit 10 points adrift with 12 to play for and their one-season sojourn in the top-flight appears to be at an end.
A first victory in Nigel Adkins' fourth game in charge was a must if the Royals were to give themselves a survival chance and drag Norwich deeper into the relegation scrap.
Pavel Pogrebnyak's close-range miss at the end of the first half proved costly and Reading's response of Garath McCleary's 72nd-minute goal was not enough.
Adkins said: "We can't hide away from the situation where we are in the league. I'm not going to do that."
The former Southampton boss cut a solemn figure and his focus now appears to be on masterminding an immediate return from the Championship.
He added: "The players are going to work very hard - they are working very hard - and we want to make sure the supporters have got something they're going to enjoy watching and ultimately winning football as well."
Source: PA
Source: PA