Preview: Norwich City vs Northampton Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Championship side Norwich City welcome League One outfit Northampton Town to their training ground in Colney for a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly on Saturday afternoon.

While this fixture represents the Canaries’ first friendly of the summer, the Cobblers have already taken part in two warm-up matches and failed to win on both occasions.

Match preview

Norwich are beginning a new era under a new head coach in the form of Liam Manning, who was appointed the first Norwich-born boss at Carrow Road in June after leading Bristol City into the playoffs last season.

Manning has taken over a Canaries side who finished 13th in the 2024-25 Championship season, 11 points behind the playoffs, with Johannes Hoff Thorup relieved of his duties at the end of April following a run of six defeats in eight games before Jack Wilshere concluded the campaign as interim boss. 

After making the “difficult decision” to leave Bristol City, Manning has insisted that he has not returned to his boyhood city for “niceties” and the “biggest driver” in taking the Norwich job is the club’s ambition and the project in place to bring success back to Carrow Road.

A fourth successive season in the Championship is on the horizon for Norwich, who have already made seven signings this summer including the £6.8m capture of striker Mathias Kvistgaarden from Brondby, though star attacker Borja Sainz is reportedly closing in on a move to Porto for a fee in excess of £14m.

Norwich’s clash with Northampton this weekend will be followed by a trip to the Netherlands for a training camp and friendlies against FC Volendam, Zulte Waregem, Olympiacos and ADO Den Haag, before Dutch side NAC Breda travel to Carrow Road to face the Canaries.

Northampton Town are gearing up for their first full season under head coach Kevin Nolan, who took charge at the end of December last year and steered the Cobblers to survival in League One last season.

After finishing 19th in the table and five points above the relegation zone, Northampton have ambitions to make vast improvements in the 2025-26 campaign, with Nolan overseeing 15 departures and nine incomings as part of a major squad reshuffle this summer.

Nolan has been “really impressed” with the club’s summer recruitment so far, but his new-look squad have not hit the ground running in pre-season, drawing 0-0 with non-league Brackley Town before losing 3-0 to Cambridge United on Tuesday.

The Cobblers will endeavour to claim their first win of pre-season when they face Norwich this weekend before heading to Spain for a week-long training camp and a friendly against Millwall.

Northampton will then return to Sixfields to take on West Ham United and Birmingham City at the end of July - facing the latter for Sam Hoskins’s testimonial game - before travelling to Wigan Athletic for their opening fixture of the new League One season on August 2.

Northampton Town pre-season form: 

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Team News

Norwich boss Manning will been keen to take a closer look at as many first-team players as possible in their opening friendly of the summer, with different lineups to potentially be named in each half.

New signings including Kvistgaarden, Vladan Kovacevic, Jakob Medic, Harry Darling and Jacob Wright, who has made his loan move permanent, could all be involved in some capacity.

Star striker Josh Sargent, who netted 15 times in the Championship last season, has been linked with an exit, but the American is also in contention to feature on Saturday.

As for Northampton, Nolan is once again expected to hand minutes to the vast majority of his squad in a bid to build up match fitness.

Seven of their nine summer signings featured against Cambridge last time out, including Jack Burroughs, Conor McCarthy and Dean Campbell from the start, while Kamarai Swyer and Ross Fitzsimons both missed out and will hope to feature in some capacity this weekend.

Norwich City possible starting lineup:

Kovacevic; Stacey, Medic, Darling, Chrisene; Wright, Slimane, Nunez; Marcondes, Jurasek; Sargent

Northampton Town possible starting lineup:

Burge; Baldwin, Dyche, McCarthy; Perkins, Campbell, Fornah, List; McGeehan, Jacobs; Hoskins

We say: Norwich City 3-1 Northampton Town

While Northampton already have two games under their belts, Norwich can be forgiven for being a little rusty in their opening friendly fixture. Nevertheless, the Canaries will fancy their chances of coming out on top should Manning name a relatively strong lineup.

Written by
Oliver Thomas

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