McConville focused on MK Dons cup test
Ruairi McConville insists the Championship can wait as Norwich City prepare for Saturday’s Carabao Cup first-round clash with MK Dons. The opening round has been moved to the start of the season, giving players more recovery time, but McConville confirms the cup will be taken seriously under Philippe Clement.
“100 per cent, yeah, we have to,” McConville said. “We got a taste of what the manager wants to do in the cup games. He treated the FA Cup run last season so seriously, and I’m sure he’ll want to do it again this year, and so do we.”
He added: “Obviously, there’s nothing better than a nice cup run. Again, we’ll try to take it game by game and treat the MK Dons game like no other and hopefully get a win into the next round.”
Darling relishing MK Dons reunion
Harry Darling is looking forward to facing his former club MK Dons this weekend as he bids to secure a starting spot in Norwich’s Championship defence. Darling made 72 appearances for MK Dons between 2021 and 2022, captaining the side and establishing himself as one of League One’s most promising defenders.
Speaking to The Pink'un, The Pink'un, Darling said: “It was a good one, wasn’t it? I’m not sure if I’ll know many people there now, but I’m sure there’ll be some staff there, some familiar faces.”
He continued: “It’ll be nice to see them, be nice to see the fans and hopefully we’ll get a good result. I haven’t got a bad word to say about the club. I love the people, love the fans, and I’m sure one day I’d like to see them again, but I loved my time there, can’t speak highly enough of them.”
City’s defensive battle heats up in pre-season
Competition for centre-back places is intensifying as Harry Darling’s strong pre-season form puts him in contention for the starting line-up. Darling has scored in friendlies against Fulham and Osasuna, adding an attacking threat to his defensive duties.
McConville on squad competition
McConville praised the healthy battle for places: “Harry’s doing brilliantly. Harry’s a great player and so is everyone we have in the squad. There’s so much that we can all learn from each other.”
“It’s that time of year where everyone’s fighting to get in the team for the first game of the season, and there’s a good argument for everyone. We’ve just got to keep working.”
Looking ahead to the Championship opener
Norwich have home comforts for the first two games, starting with West Brom on August 15. McConville said: “It’ll be nice. Obviously, the start of the season at home will be great, and hopefully we can get off to a good start.”
He added: “But every game is going to be tough, home or away, so we’ve just got to keep taking it game by game and doing our work on the training pitch to put us in that position to try and win as many games as possible.”
Darling also acknowledged the challenge ahead: “Every year in the Championship is going to be tough. The teams coming down are really strong and it is going to be a difficult league.”
“We showed last year what we can do and that we can compete with anyone when we play our best football. So we’ll be looking to do that and finish as high as possible.”