Tunnicliffe not overly worried despite heavy Norwich defeat

The midfielder’s home debut was a collective one to forget for Town as the Canaries thumped them 5-1 on Saturday in their final warm-up game ahead of the Championship opener against Middlesbrough on Friday.

It was a worrying start as Luton conceded two in six minutes as City displayed the attacking talents that won them the second-tier title last season to propel them to the Premier League.

It was 4-1 at half time as Josip Drmic bagged a hat-trick and Luton struggled to get to grips with the East Anglian side’s fluid football.

Former Manchester United youth product Tunnicliffe was brought in as Graeme Jones’ third signing with much of his career spent in the Championship after a football upbringing in the Old Trafford academy.

He said: “I don’t think we’ll face many teams this season that will be quite as good as them.

"I played against them last year and they were excellent as well and that’s why they won the league.

"They’re a really good team and hopefully there’s not many teams that can move the ball and rotate as well as them.

“They’ve got a German manager and that’s the German mindset you see with Liverpool and (Jurgen) Klopp.

"Obviously, they’re two different teams but that seems to be how the Germans tend to play.

"I think it’s in vital areas that you don’t have much time, obviously around their box it becomes compact and you have to move the ball quick, otherwise you won’t really create anything.

"So, we’ll have to get to grips with it. Today was a learning curve and I’m sure we’ll be better for it.

“It’s never nice to get beat but, bigger picture, it’s minutes under the belt.

“They won the Championship last year, so we knew, going in, it was a very good team.

"It’s a step up in levels so this week we’ll have to prepare, dissect what’s happened today and get ready for Friday.”