The Scot was returning to former club Norwich and the 1-0 scoreline secured his third win in three games in Norfolk since he left to take over at Villa Park.
His side survived conceding an early penalty and an injury to striker Christian Benteke to take the lead through the Belgium international's replacement Libor Kozak.
One goal has usually not been enough for Villa to take all three points but they hung on to keep their first clean sheet in 26 Barclays Premier League outings with Lambert left praising his side's commitment.
"The result was the most important thing rather than the performance," he said.
"What I am really pleased about is we had a few lads carrying knocks and we asked them to go out and perform. I thought they were brilliant. We were missing Jores (Okore) and Ashley (Westwood) who have been big players for us and we had to patch a few others up. In that opening 10 minutes I felt we could have been 2-0 up and then we conceded a soft penalty."
Robert Snodgrass saw his penalty saved by Brad Guzan after referee Chris Foy had pointed to the spot for a handball against Ciaran Clark.
The American goalkeeper has been in great form for Villa and kept the visitors ahead with a couple of fantastic second-half saves, with Lambert happy with his ever-reliable stopper.
"He made a brilliant save on the penalty," he added.
"He played a major part in the result but that is what we pay him for. That is his job. His job is to make saves but he has been like that for me for the past year.
Source: PA
Source: PA