Daniel Farke was thrilled to make a winning start to pre-season but cautioned against reading too much into a 6-0 friendly victory over Milton Keynes Dons.
Young midfielder Josh Martin scored a brace in the first half and that was added to by goals from Marco Stiepermann, Adam Idah, Onel Hernandez and Emi Buendia, against a Dons team managed by Canaries legend Russell Martin.
Summer signings Danel Sinani, Kieran Dowell, Bali Mumba and Przemyslaw Placheta were all in the starting XI as City started getting into shape for their first game of the Championship season, at Huddersfield Town on Saturday, September 12.
“I wouldn’t over-interpret this game too much,” said Farke. “It was of course a good win and performance but it was just a friendly. I’m not over the moon.
“Josh (Martin) started well in the game and scored twice. Adam Idah could have scored four or five. Przemyslaw could have scored four or five as well.
“I was pleased with the way Josh used his chances and finished his situations but there’s lots of work to do, so I’m not willing to say too much on individual performances.
“The players are heading in the right direction and we’ll go further on with this attitude.”
Whereas City are readjusting after Premier League relegation, Martin led the Dons to safety in League One last season and named some trial players in his starting line-up. The friendly win preceded a week-long training camp in Germany for Norwich, which will feature three friendlies.
Farke, speaking to the Canaries’ official website after the win at Colney, continued: “You always want to start the first game of pre-season on the front foot with a good performance and result and that’s what the lads delivered. I was pleased with the workload and our tactical approach, having only trained for three or four days.
“We were against a side in their fourth week of pre-season who were highly motivated with an important test, so it was a good performance and result.
“We could have scored even more goals as we had an unbelievable amount of chances - we missed even more than we scored - but I was particularly pleased with the clean sheet. In pre-season, you have many changes so the concentration can go away, but we were focused from the first second to the last.”
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