Pictures from pre-season friendly between Cobblers and Norwich City as faces new and old feature

Jonathan Rowe, Norwich’s highly talented 21-year-old, scored twice in the opening 12 minutes as the visitors dominated the first half before a more disjointed second ended with Kenneth Aboh scoring a late third.

"It feels good to be back,” said Brady. “Obviously we were up against very strong opposition. It’s great to have them here but it was such a high level game for us for our first friendly and we’re not anywhere near our levels at the moment.

"But pre-season is about building. Norwich move the ball excellently and you can see the style already being implemented by their new manager and for us it was more about fitness and off the ball work and getting our geography back. Ball retention will come as the games come.

"You can’t ever knock back a Norwich but you’d like an opposition not quite at their level for your first game back, but it was great to play them and now we have lots to work on and lots to do to keep improving the squad and embedding our principles.”