FIRST TEAM coach Ian Crook paid full tribute to opponents Great Yarmouth Town for their resilient display at Carrow Road last night and viewed it as another useful exercise in the quest for match fitness for certain players.

After a goalless first half, in which Bloaters' goalkeeper Michael Hilton pulled off three excellent saves, City broke the deadlock just before the hour mark courtesy of South African midfielder Matty Pattison's 20-yard low drive. Australian midfielder David Carney doubled that lead just five minutes later with a stunning left-footed free-kick from 25-yards and Cody McDonald on his City debut completed the scoring with a neat finish.

Speaking to canaries.co.uk after the match Crook said: "Full credit to Yarmouth, they had a real go, I thought their 'keeper was excellent for them and they put their bodies on the line but obviously it could have been more but the exercise for us was to get people like Kris Renton, Dave Carney, Simon Lappin and Adrian Leijer game time because they have been short of it, so it was good for them to get that time in tonight."

Half-time saw the introduction of Cody McDonald for his first outing in City colours since his transfer deadline day signing from non-league Dartford, and the 22-year-old rounded off the scoring in the 70th minute.

"He's only been us with two and a bit weeks and arrived injured, he got some bad knocks on his last game (for Dartford), so we haven't seen a lot of him in training ourselves," Crook said about McDonald. "The last two days have been the first days he has trained so it is really good that he has got on the pitch. We probably weren't looking for him to have 45, were looking at 20, 25 minutes but Luke Daley was a little bit tight in his hamstring so it gave us the opportunity to look at him and I was glad he scored.

"As I say we need game time, not just for Cody but for a few of the boys, game time on a regular basis, you soon lose match fitness, you can train everyday but it is not the same as playing games."

Crook continued: "Somebody was talking to me about were you looking to score more goals but that wasn't the point of the exercise, the point was for players to get good game time under their belt, to be a benefit for us on the weekend."

Finally asked how he was settling in to life at Norwich City and whether he was acclimatising to the damp and cold of Norfolk, Crook said: "I'm not getting used to that! Everybody at the Club has made me feel extremely welcome, the boys attitude in training and games has been excellent, so that has made it a lot easier for me to settle down, three points though would make me feel nice and warm."