Ady Gallagher was proud of the efforts of his under-strength team despite a 3-0 friendly defeat to Norwich City Under-23s.

The Trawlerboys hosted the young Canaries and started well, with Travis Cole heading a corner just over and Josh Greenleaf lifting a snap shot onto the roof of the net. Cole also crashed a shot against the bar late on but City proved too strong for a Blues team missing key players including Harry Barker, Andrew Fisk and Shaun Bammant.

“I was proud of the lads actually because a lot of them haven’t played a lot of football who had to play on Saturday,” the Lowestoft boss said, following on from a 2-0 win at Bedford Town in the FA Cup first qualifying round. “Lads like Cruise (Nyadzayo) and Josh Greenleaf, Freddie Westlake, Ollie Humphrey, they’ve all had to come in and put in another shift, against a very fit, energetic side and I’m proud of their efforts.

“We hit the bar twice and we’ve contributed to the game, particularly in the early stages but it was about us just trying to defend well in the second half and trying to break. Fatigue clearly set in for our players and when that happens decision making can go slightly awry but I was really pleased.

“I felt Rossi Jarvis had a fantastic game in midfield, his fitness levels are now getting to where they need to be and that’s only going to benefit us.

“What I can feel as a result of this game is that it was far more challenging than a training sessions and by Saturday (at Kingstonian) I’m hopefully going to have a nearly full squad and even the fringe players have had time on the pitch, looked sharp and contributed. So there’s a lot of positives for me.”

Lowestoft 0 Norwich City U23s 3 – Young talents shine for Canaries

Blues keeper Elvjis Putnins also played a starring role in the first half, twice denying the lively Kieron Higgs.

“He’s been understudy to Ben (Dudzinski) and he’s been fantastic for us so far this season,” Gallagher continued. “He’s waited and deserves his chance, he’s done really well, hasn’t put a foot wrong.”

He added: “The scoreline perhaps reflects the dominance of the Norwich lads in terms of possession but I felt we worked incredibly hard to keep them out despite clearly having a lot of tired legs.”