City’s youngsters impress as they hit Coventry for six

A youthful Norwich City side fired themselves into the Third Round of the EFL Cup as they ran-out 6-1 winners over Coventry City at Carrow Road on Tuesday evening. Eleven changes were made from the team that came out of Sunday’s East Anglian Derby with a 1-1 draw, but any fears that this would lead to a disjointed display were comprehensively dispelled by Alex Neil’s men.

The vast majority of Norwich supporters have been calling for youth to be given a chance this season and, whilst this has yet to materialise in the first four league games, Coventry’s visit was utilised by Neil to give such opportunities to some of City’s highly-rated youngsters. James Maddison, who was actually signed from Coventry last January, and Louis Thompson were both given their senior debuts, whilst there was a first start for summer signing Sergi Canos and a rare appearance at left-back for Harry Toffolo. Along with Jacob Murphy, this gave City’s starting eleven a refreshingly youthful outlook as five, almost half, of the line-up were 21 and under.

A refreshing outlook gave an equally refreshing performance as the aforementioned youngsters, with the help of some senior second-string such as Tony Andreu, combined to put in a scintillating attacking display. It was indeed one of the more experienced players, Kyle Lafferty, who opened the scoring. Considering our lack of striking options, it has been to the dismay of some City supporters that Neil has so consistently overlooked the Northern Irish striker - especially when it is considered that he has been scoring so prolifically for his country in recent months. With just a week of the window remaining and still just Cameron Jerome as our only other striker, it is looking increasingly likely that the 28-year-old will have a role to play this season and thus his performance was pleasing. Sergi Canos was the provider for Lafferty as an error in the Coventry defence gifted the ball to the Spaniard who immediately played it through to the ex-Rangers man who, with only the goalkeeper to beat, finished comprehensively. It was a finish of confidence for a striker who has been so lacking in game-time and his admirers within the City fanbase - of which there are a few - will be pointing to it to argue that he should have been given more of an opportunity.

The same combination re-emerged for City’s second, this time Lafferty supplying Canos, as the Northern Irishman’s flicked header fell to the feet of the summer signing from Liverpool, who took it neatly past a helpless Coventry defender and finished delightfully from outside of the box - curling it into the far corner of Charles-Cook’s goal. It was a strike of class from the 19-year-old, who is surely pushing firmly on Neil’s door for a place in the starting eleven in City’s next league fixture in Birmingham on Saturday. The only blemish in the evening came when a piece of lax defending from Harry Toffolo resulted in a penalty being conceded and Coventry pulling a goal back. The current injury to Martin Olsson has left City short in the left-back position and the 21-year-old would have been hopeful that a mistake free performance would help put his name into the frame - unfortunately, as it transpires, giving away a penalty (albeit a soft one) is unlikely to have dramatically helped his cause.

Luckily the two goal cushion was restored just minutes later as another youngster took his chance to make an impact. This time it was James Maddison, impressive all evening, who delivered an inch-perfect corner for captain Russell Martin - returning from injury - to neatly convert. City are in desperate need of a capable set-piece taker and the signs shown by Maddison, both in pre-season and on Tuesday night, suggest that the 19-year-old could be a future solution to the problem. The fourth saw Maddison the provider once more, as he neatly wriggled away from the Coventry midfield before playing in his 2015/16 Coventry team-mate Jacob Murphy, who duly scored his second of the season - a curling effort from outside the box, not too dissimilar to Canos’ first. By this stage it was solely a matter of how many and, unfortunately for Coventry, the hungry Norwich side were in the mood for more. City’s fifth was the most well-worked of the evening, with Canos slotting home his second from a Josh Murphy pass after a neat, flowing move, before the performance was neatly capped with a wonder-strike from Ben Godfrey on debut to make it six.

It is easy to down-play the result by pointing to the fact that the opposition are a league lower, but City fans should know as well as anyone that cup games against apparently inferior opponents are not always that simple. Furthermore, when you consider that a number of the youngsters involved were actually playing at Coventry’s level last season, it makes the thrashing all the more impressive. The third round sees City travel to Everton, which will hopefully give the same team an opportunity to test their credentials against a top Premier League outfit. With this, on top of the experience that they will undoubtedly gain from competing in the controversial EFL Trophy, this season looks set to be one for City’s youngsters to really make their mark.