But Carver now faces a "15-game season" to turn his dream job into a longer-term appointment, with club officials still expected to look elsewhere for a successor to Alan Pardew.
Carver said: "I want this job and have all re-focused on what is really a 15-game season.
"We are getting players back from injury and they have all got to compete and get in the team. Everybody's re-focused because they know I am now the head coach and I hope we are going to go forward."
Carver went on to pay tribute to top scorer Papiss Cisse, who completed his long-haul return from the African Nations Cup late on Friday night and made a brief appearance off the bench with the game already won.
"We got him on a train and a plane and he got here eventually," Carver said. "He might have been a little bit fatigued, but I wanted to get him on the pitch because he had travelled and made the effort to get here. It shows you that everybody wants to be a part of it and that is a good thing."