Philippe Clement calls Norwich’s Carabao Cup win ideal warm-up for league opener

Norwich head coach Philippe Clement said his side’s comfortable 4-1 win over MK Dons in the first round of the Carabao Cup was the ideal warm-up for next week’s Championship opener.

The hosts never looked back after Mohamed Toure had opened the scoring after just 41 seconds as a disastrous attempt to play the ball out from the back had allowed Kenny McLean to play him in.

Anis Ben Slimane curled in a second after seven minutes and when Andre Brooks’ shot took a big deflection off Ben Chrisene to make it 3-0 after 43 minutes it was effectively game over.

Ryan Wintle did manage to reduce the arrears from close range on 55 minutes, moments after Vladan Kovacevic had saved Nathaniel Mendez-Laing’s penalty, but new boy Brooks had the final say on the hour mark after racing clear of a static Dons defence.

“It was a really positive afternoon all round,” Clement said. “I was pleased to see so many fans at the game (over 20,000) on a warm day when there would have been other things to do – and I was also pleased with the players who gave them plenty to enjoy.

“The players have been hungry all pre-season and there is an incredible vibe in the group – but this is just the start and we will need to up our level next week against West Brom, who, with respect to MK Dons, are a better side.”

Dons boss Paul Warne said: “To be honest we got smoked today – you could see that they were a Championship side and we have only just come up from League Two.”