Jonathan Redhead Norwich City manager Bryan Gunn says he believes strikers Grant Holt and Cody McDonald can fire as a pairing this season. The pair were instrumental in the 4-0 victory against Yeovil in the Carling Cup on Tuesday with Holt bagging an excellent hat-trick, while his younger foil did everything but hit the back of the net.

Jonathan Redhead

Norwich City manager Bryan Gunn says he believes strikers Grant Holt and Cody McDonald can fire as a pairing this season.

The pair were instrumental in the 4-0 victory against Yeovil in the Carling Cup on Tuesday with Holt bagging an excellent hat-trick, while his younger foil did everything but hit the back of the net.

It was the second time the duo had combined to good effect, with Holt setting up McDonald for the Canaries consolation in the 7-1 defeat at home to Colchester United.

And despite having little time to build their relationship on the training field, Gunn believes they have the makings of a good partnership in the coming weeks and months.

So far, Holt has played the role of the target man and finisher with McDonald playing on the shoulder of the last defender and using his pace to good use and the pair are likely to get another run out together at St James' Park against Exeter City in tomorrow's League One clash.

“I think they'll end up being a very good partnership,” the City boss said.

“To be fair we've not had a lot of time to work with them. Obviously Grant's just come into the club in the last couple of weeks and Cody's missed most of pre-season with injury.

“Tuesday was his first serious football of the summer apart from his introduction on Saturday and it was good to see Cody's fitness levels being where they were after the bad pre-season he's had.

“They showed signs of building a relationship between the two of them and it's something we will be keen to work with on the training pitch and see if we can help progress it further.”

And he said that if they partnership continues to fire the goals they will cement their places in the starting line-up.

However, should the goals and assists dry up, then there is plenty of firepower waiting in the wings to take their places.

“With the depth of squad we've got, with the likes of Chris Martin, Goran Maric and Jamie Cureton there's five strikers vying for two spots so it's very competitive,” Gunn said.

“We need to make sure everyone's on their toes. As long as strikers are cracking goals in or helping contribute to making goals they've got the best chance of staying in the team.

“Certainly, the signs are encouraging with Grant and Cody working together.”