City begin pre-season by thrashing MK Dons

Norwich City began their pre-season preparations with a 6-0 thrashing of Russell Martin’s MK Dons at Colney.

The game took place behind closed doors and saw a number of City’s summer signings feature.

Daniel Farke opted not to include any of the five players who have been described as City’s ‘crown jewels’ in his first-half XI, with Bali Mumba, Jacob Sorensen and Sam McCallum all earning a start.

Martin’s men had City loan pair Louis Thompson and Carlton Morris on the bench.

City had a host of chances in the opening exchanges, with Danel Sinani and Przemyslaw Placheta hitting the woodwork inside the opening ten minutes.

Josh Martin gave the Canaries the lead after 14 minutes. Placheta’s press saw Dons keeper Lee Nicholls carelessly lose possession. Kieran Dowell hassled Jordan Houghton to create the mistake.

Sinani raced onto the loose ball and drove towards goal, before teeing up Josh Martin who emphatically dispatched his effort into the net.

Placheta was City’s source of creativity again as they doubled their lead seven minutes later.

Dowell exchanged passes with Lukas Rupp before sending Placheta racing away on the left-hand side.

The Polish under-21 international did well to keep the ball in play before picking out Martin with a drilled cross and the 18-year-old converted with a low right-footed drive.

Oliver Skipp, Adam Idah and Onel Hernandez were introduced at the interval as Farke shuffled his pack in order to give minutes to the majority of his squad.

City were awarded a penalty five minutes after the restart when Hernandez was fouled in the area - but Idah missed the target with his spot-kick, shooting over the bar.

Hernandez then had a chance to extend City’s lead but the Cuban’s shot from a tight angle was denied by the post.

The Canaries did add a third when Emi Buendia’s corner was flicked to the back post by Mario Vrancic.

His header was deflected into the path of Marco Stiepermann, who managed to get to the ball first to instinctively volley into the net from close-range.

Dons substitute keeper Sam Walker made a string to excellent saves to prevent City extending their advantage - the best came as he denied Idah after the Irish youth international had raced through on goal and seemed certain to score.

Idah’s perseverance did pay dividends after he latched onto Max Aarons’ pass before coolly slotting past Walker to give Farke’s side a four goal lead.

Hernandez added a fifth minutes later after swivelling in the area to create space prior to finding the top corner with a thumping strike from inside the area.

Buendia then got in on the act and added a sixth after the Canaries once again stole possession inside the Dons half. Stiepermann looked destined to score but opted to square it to the Argentine who tapped home.

City will now travel to Germany for a week-long training camp - with their first friendly taking place on Monday against third division side SC Verl.

First-half XIs:

Norwich City: Krul; Mumba, Zimmermann, Klose (c), McCallum; Rupp, Sorensen; Martin, Dowell, Placheta; Sinani.

Goals: Martin 13, 21, Stiepermann 53, Idah 74, Hernandez 80, Buendia 86

MK Dons: Nicholls; Poole, Lewington, Trialist, Cargill, Harvie; Gladwin, Houghton, Kasumu; Nombe, Trialist.