Jones believes decimated Canaries still have enough 'Premier League quality' for cup clash

New Norwich striker Jordan Hugill during his loan spell with QPR last year

Luton boss Nathan Jones has warned his side not to take today’s opponents Norwich City lightly despite the Canaries missing up to 17 players for their Carabao Cup first round clash at Kenilworth Road.

Daniel Farke’s side, who were relegated from the Premier League last term, are without a host of players on international duty, including Finland striker Teemu Pukkki, plus England U21 quartet Ben Godfrey, Todd Cantwell, Oliver Skipp and Max Aarons.

They also miss Josip Drmic and Emi Buendia through suspension, while trio Sam Byram, Grant Hanley and Xavi Quintillare are injured, taking the unavailable list to a full match day squad.

However, with players like Jordan Hugill still at their disposal, plus summer signings from Everton Kieran Dowell, there are still plenty of options for Farke as Town manager Jones said: “They’ve got a strong enough squad and not far off 40 professionals who are of Premier League quality.

“I’m not saying they’ve lost any quality, but they’re a top Championship side, if not Premier League side, so they’ll be fine.

“They’ve got a strong enough squad to be able to handle that.

“The only thing they could’ve done was bring it forward by a week, but then I think that affects your preparations.

“I would’ve rather have delayed it a week and gone in to play the strongest Norwich team possible, because it’s all about us and our preparation.

“A week earlier, are we as prepared as we’d be for a cup competition?

"But we’ll treat it right, we didn’t want to change it, Norwich didn’t to change it, and we’re happy with that.

“It will be an extremely tough game, regardless of who plays because they have a fantastic squad.

"We’re in a better position than if we did have to change it to last week because, with all due respect, the Northampton game was a wonderful game for us, and gave us a test because of the way they approached it.”

Town go into the game having played just four pre-season friendlies, although managed to win them all, scoring 16 goals in the process and conceding none.

With a Championship opener at Barnsley next weekend, Jones will look at today's game as a fifth warm-up match ahead of the league campaign, adding: "It’s a good test. I won’t say it’s a nice start because there could’ve been nicer starts to the season, but what we always tend to do here, is draw the highest ranked team in the competition.

“Anyone that comes down from the Premier League, we draw them in the first round of the cup. It happened with West Brom and now it’s happened here.

“But it’s a good test. If this was the last pre-season friendly, which it effectively would’ve been, then we would’ve wanted a Norwich or a Premier League test, something different from a top end Championship test, and we’ve got that.

“We want to win the game, it is a cup competition and there’s something on the game, so we want to win it, but effectively, it’s an extension of our pre-season programme as it’s the fifth game, the marquee game.

“We’re treating it as a cup game, but using it as part of our pre-season preparations, going into the Barnsley game, which is the season league opener.”