Johannes Hoff Thorup had his say on the key issues around his first game in charge of Norwich City after a 3-0 friendly win at Northampton.

Jon Rowe's brace and a late Ken Aboh close range strike eased the Canaries to a maiden victory at Sixfields in front of 774 travelling supporters.

Thorup spoke exclusively to the Pinkun after the game on Saturday afternoon.

Northampton verdict

Great to get started, I will say. Great atmosphere in the stadium here. Good to see some fans again, especially those in yellow. We named two different line ups so it was just a case of deciding who played in which half and can we know already start building some relations between the players and that was the most important thing.

We got 45 minutes for more or less everyone and I think that was needed for now, because now we've had more or less two weeks with training, so it was needed and also in terms of stepping into next week with two games in Belgium.

We are trying to build something a little bit new. So we cannot waste any games, we have to use all the minutes that we can, like I said, to build some relations, but also to see if we can find a base within even if we make changes from time to time whenever we play.

That was why I didn’t want to mix it up with some young guys and some more experienced guys.

Absent players

[Ashley Barnes] Barnesy had that injury from the end of the season and he's not really fit yet. And we've kept him out of training. So we have to assess him and wait and see what we will do with him but it will take some time from what I see.

It is the same injury that he keeps on struggling with, so we really have to see what we what we can do to make him ready as fast as possible. But I think it will take a little time.

[Onel Hernandez and Liam Gibbs] When you ask a football coach about dates then it's always minus one or plus two. That's the way we work. I think they were back on Thursday with the team. So good for us to get them in the group again and to get them started. But of course this game was too early for them. But they are back involved.

[Adam Idah] He was back in Monday and Tuesday doing his testing and will be back with the group from this week.

Transfer search for a new left back

I think Ben was calling a lot of people these days. So yes I think something will happen soon. I know sometimes people, including myself, can be a little bit impatient, but it's more important that we get the right left back instead of just getting a left back fast or quick.

That's the most important but he's making a lot of phone calls, Ben, and we're having a lot of meetings so hopefully there'll be something within the not too many weeks.