Norwich City continued their pre-season preparations with a closely-contested 0-0 draw against AFC Wimbledon at the Cherry Red Records Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Over the course of the evening, Norwich came closest to breaking the deadline through two Matěj Jurásek chances in the opening half.
There were further chances late in the second half when substitute Zach Baumann was denied from close-range in injury time in front of a strong travelling contingent, but the game ended in a stalemate.
Following Friday night’s impressive victory over St. Gallen in Switzerland, Philippe Clement shuffled his pack for the fixture in South London.
Paris Maghoma was the only player to retain his spot in the starting 11, with the likes of the returning Amankwah Forson, Jurásek and Bruno Alves all given the opportunity for minutes from the off.
On a warm but overcast evening, it was the home side that started the game on the front foot.
Alistair Smith fired the game’s first shot over Dan Grimshaw’s from all of 30 yards inside the opening 10 minutes.
Aron Sasu was next to come close for the home side, racing in behind the City backline before seeing a shot from an acute angle well smothered by the onrushing Grimshaw.
At the other end, Maghoma was once again at the forefront of City’s positive attacking play.
On 17 minutes he danced beyond a couple of Wimbledon defenders into the penalty, only to see his progress halted by goalkeeper Joe McDonnell.
Another opportunity followed moments later, when Alves clipped a pass over the host’s defence which found Jurásek. The Czech winger’s first-time volley flashed marginally wide of the near post.
The best chance of the half then fell the way of Jurásek again on 36 minutes.
Forson slipped a pass into the right channel the City wide man, who opened up his body before curling a shot wide of the top far corner of the goal.
There was still time for another chance before the interval, this time up the other end, with Grimshaw down to repel a low shot from Antwoine Hackford.
In the second half, goalmouth action was at a premium, as Clement made a raft of changes on the hour mark.
Two of the substitutes combined shortly after, when Botan Ameen pulled the ball back from the right channel for Baumann, who saw his goal-bound shot hacked clear.
As the game progressed into its final throes, City, with several senior players now on the field, upped the ante.
Further late chances fell to Baumann and Mathias Kvistgaarden, though ultimately there was to be no way through.
AFC Wimbledon: McDonnell, Sessegnon (Hedges 76), Johnson (c) (Leach 76), Maycock (Reeves 76), Smith (Browne 76), Hackford (McCoy-Splatt 76), Hippolyte (Jennings 76), Horan (Seddon 76), Sweeney (Ogundere 60), Sasu (Nelson76), Nkeng (Jovanovic 76)
Subs not used: Trialist
Norwich City: Grimshaw, Stacey (Glossop 46), Medić (McConville 60), Alves (Darling 46), Özcan (Chrisene 60), Field (c) (Wright 60), Gibbs (Mattsson 60), Forson (Ameen 60), Maghoma (Schwartau 60), Jurásek (Baumann 60), Jones (Kvistgaarden 60)
Subs not used: Kovačević, Ansen, Towler, Adelusi
HT: 0-0
FT: 0-0
Venue: Cherry Red Records Stadium
Attendance: 3,110 (1,409 away)