The Hatters were on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline this afternoon as Premier League Norwich City ran out the victors at Kenilworth Road in Graeme Jones’ side’s final game of pre-season.
Dan Potts grabbed the only goal for the Town with Josep Drmic netting a hat-trick for the Canaries, whilst Marco Stiepermann and Patrick Roberts also got on the score-sheet.
Stiepermann opened the scoring in the fourth minute when he tapped in at the back-stick from Kenny McLeans flick, before Drmic doubled the Canaries’ lead just three minutes later when he converted from Max Aarons’ pullback.
Todd Cantwell was denied in fine fashion by Simon Sluga with 14 minutes gone – who made his Kenilworth Road debut – but Drmic was quickest to the loose ball and made no mistake from 12 yards.
The Town started to have some joy down the left and they got their goal after winning a corner down that side. Andrew Shinnie crossed in from a free-kick, Potts got his head on it first, it fell to the front-post and the defender managed to squeeze an effort past Tim Krul with 34 minutes on the clock.
City restored their three-goal cushion no more than a minute later as Drmic looped a header from Roberts’ corner over Sluga who was at full-stretch.
Daniel Farke’s side found their fifth 11 minutes after the restart as Roberts smashed in a fine effort from 25-yards, finding the top left corner.
Town XI: Sluga, Cranie, Pearson, Bradley, Potts, Tunnicliffe, Mpanzu, Shinnie (Berry 59), Lee (Moncur 59), McManaman (Cornick 75), Collins.
Substitutes: Shea, Berry, Cornick, Moncur, Jones, Galloway, Neufville.
Goal: Potts 34’
Yellow: Berry
Norwich XI: Krul, Aarons (Byram 60), Hanley (Godfrey 80), Roberts (Leitner 73), Lewis (Heise 60), Cantwell (Henandez 75), Klose, Stiepermann (Srbeny 60), Trybull (Idah 73), Drmic, McLean.
Substitutes: Byram, Godfrey, Leitner, Hernandez, Heise, Fahrmann, Srbeny, Idah.
Goals: Stiepermann 4’, Drmic 6’, 14’, 35’, Roberts 55’
Attendance: 4,218.
Away: 642