'Annoyed' Norwich boss Farke felt Canaries missed their best players during Luton defeat

Norwich City head coach Daniel Farke admitted his side missed their best players as they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Luton on Saturday, going down to a 3-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road.

The visitors were without at least 15 of their squad due to international duty, with injuries and suspensions robbing the Canaries of further options.

Town took the lead through James Collins' 79th minute strike and although summer signing Kieran Dowell levelled for Norwich, Collins struck twice more to set up a second round tie at Reading.

Speaking afterwards, Farke said: "We are disappointed because we wanted to go into the next round, we all know I’m deeply a fan of cup competition and for that I’m annoyed, disappointed, we weren’t able to use the chance today to go onto the next round.

“In general, we have to be careful not to accuse the lads too much, we knew it was a difficult game with 15 players away on international duty, so it’s like the whole first-team were more or less away.

“It was a difficult game for us, without any doubt. It’s important to realise that’s what we have to face during the season.

"Each and every game on the Championship level is unbelievably difficult and small details are crucial in if you win or lose a game.

“Every little mistake can be punished and you have to be switched on, even when you’re the better team, but you have to use your chances and play without mistakes and that is why we lost today.

“It wasn’t impossible for us to win this game, it wasn’t like Luton were miles better.

"I think in the first-half we were the much better side, but if we wanted to reach the highest level this game proved we needed our best players.

"If I’m honest, I’d rather have this reality check for the players in the game, we had to play this game without more or less 20 players.

“It was a competitive game, of course I wanted to win this, but I knew the circumstances for this game.”