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Norwich punished Luton for their missed chances as Marcelino Nunez’s second-half strike helped the Canaries to a narrow 1-0 Championship win at Kenilworth Road.
Luton, who have now registered three-consecutive defeats in the league, have been pulled back into the relegation picture following last season’s drop from the Premier League.
The Hatters, who were in need of three points after losing to Bristol City and Swansea over the last week, enjoyed a promising early spell thanks to the speed of Tahith Chong.
The wide-man had picked up pace in his own half on the counter and skipped past two players before slipping Elijah Adebayo through on goal, but after a poor first touch, the striker’s effort was aimed favourably at the goalkeeper.
Once attacking orchestrator Jordan Clark was forced off through injury, the hosts lost their edge and it was Norwich who pressed from the front.
The visitors created space for Emiliano Marcondes, whose one-on-one effort was stopped by Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, who got down low at his bottom-left corner in the 17th minute.
But the home side could always rely on their striking double act of Adebayo and Carlton Morris, whose physical attributes could cause problems to any defence.
Norwich’s relentless man-for-man press gave Luton the option to go long and after Amari’i Bell effortlessly pinged a ball onto the chest of Morris, the skipper played in Adebayo from a tight angle before Norwich’s defenders scrambled to deny the opener.
And it was a similar long ball to target-man Adebayo which produced the chance of the match after the interval.
The rehearsed move this time saw Chong run on to a chested-down pass but his left-footed effort crashed off the crossbar as Luton were denied a well-worked move in the 63rd minute.
Following more missed chances from Rob Edwards’ men, the hosts rued their lack of cutting edge as Norwich went down the other end to dispatch their first chance of note in the second half.
Nunez down the right gained a yard of space after his full-back overlapped, dragging the defender with him, before he slammed his effort across goal and into the bottom left-hand corner after 73 minutes.
Luton hit the post in four added minutes as another defeat heaped pressure on underfire Edwards.
The managers
Luton’s Rob Edwards:
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Norwich’s Johannes Hoff Thorup:
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