Álvaro Arbeloa’s Fulham were beaten in their first pre-season friendly, falling to a 2-0 defeat against Norwich at Motspur Park

Álvaro Arbeloa’s Fulham were beaten in their first pre-season friendly, falling to a 2-0 defeat against Norwich at Motspur Park.

24 players gained valuable minutes against the Sky Bet Championship side, who are now unbeaten in all five of their pre-season matches so far.

The Canaries took the lead just inside 20 minutes when Mathias Kvistgaarden put a ball across for Anis Ben Slimane to slot home.

Bernd Leno had to be alert when Matěj Jurásek was sent bearing down on goal, but our ‘keeper stood strong and batted away the attempted dink.

Kevin provided some dangerous moments as Fulham responded, but after the winger weaved his way into the box, his delicate effort was cleared away by a yellow shirt.

We forced travelling goalkeeper Vladan Kovačević into action after the break. Ryan Sessegnon’s deflected strike was pushed past the post, before Farhaan Ali Wahid’s curling effort from distance was gathered.

But Philippe Clement’s team doubled their advantage just after the hour mark when a corner was headed back across goal and centre-back Harry Darling nodded in on the goal line.

Tom Cairney was given the chance to have a strike at goal when Emile Smith Rowe was upended just outside the penalty area, but the skipper’s effort went just wide.

Fulham will now travel to Portugal for a training camp, where they will face Al-Ahli in their next pre-season test.

Fulham’s team on pre-season duty and how many minutes they earned

: Leno (Lecomte 46′), Tete (White 46′), Amissah (Andersen 46′), Bassey (Cuenca 46′), Nwoko (Araujo 25′ (Sessegnon 46′)), Reed (Cairney 46′), Lukić (Harris 46′ (Dibley Dias 75′)), King (Zepa 46′), Iwobi (Smith Rowe 46′), Kevin (Ali Wahid 46′), Muniz (Kusi-Asare 46′)

Subs: Lecomte, Borto, Andersen, Cuenca, Sessegnon, Araujo, White, Smith Rowe, Dibley-Dias, Harris, Nwoko, Ali Wahid, Zepa, Kusi-Asare,

Norwich Team

: Kovačević, Stacey (Gibbs 65′), McConville (Alves 65′), Córdoba (Darling 46′), Chrisene (Özcan 65′), McLean (Field 46′), Mattsson (Wight 65′), Jurásek (Forson 46′), Slimane (Maghoma 46′), Schwartau (Baumann 65′), Kvistgaarden (Jones 65′)

Subs: Grimshaw, Gibbs, Alves, Darling, Özcan, Field, Wight, Forson, Maghoma, Baumann, Jones, Ansen, Medić, Glossop, Towler