And they suffered another blow in the closing stages when defender Max Aarons hobbled off through injury.

With 12 players unavailable through injury and Emi Buendia suspended, Norwich were forced to name virtually all their fit first teamers in the starting line-up, with Marco Stiepermann deputising for the unavailable Teemu Pukki up front.

Such were Daniel Farke’s selection problems that he was only able to name six substitutes, with five of those being members of the club’s under-23 squad.

The makeshift nature of the home team showed in the early stages as they struggled to find any rhythm.

And Coventry wasted a decent chance to get their noses in front after 19 minutes when Jamie Allen was unable to convert a cross from the right from the excellent Fankaty Dabo.

But Norwich suddenly clicked into gear midway through the half, creating a couple of excellent chances before opening the scoring after 27 minutes.

Goalkeeper Ben Wilson did well to deny Stiepermann after the German had got behind the Sky Blues’ defence and then made an excellent double block to foil first Josh Martin and then Stiepermann again after Przemyslaw Placheta’s low cross had left him exposed.

But moments later Placheta found himself one-on-one with the keeper after latching on to a fine through ball from Alex Tettey and when the Polish winger was sent flying referee Keith Stroud pointed straight to the spot.

Protests that the keeper had got to the ball first were ignored and Vrancic fired down the middle to give Norwich the advantage.

Coventry might have equalised when stand-in keeper Michael McGovern dropped a tame header from Amadou Bakayoko, but no-one was on hand to tap home the lose ball and it was cleared for a corner.

After a quiet start to the second period Coventry boss Mark Robins opted to freshen things up on the hour mark, with Tyler Walker, Jordan Shipley and Gustavo Hamer all coming off the bench, and Callum O’Hare quickly brought a decent save out of McGovern with a shot from just inside the box.

The visitors were having the bulk of possession without making much use of it against a strong Norwich rearguard and Robins added some more fresh legs with 15 minutes remaining, Biamou and Wesley Jobello coming on.

The new-look side almost levelled when Hamer’s inswinging free-kick hit the far post before rebounding off a Norwich defender for a corner – and they finally got the goal they were looking for in the 89th minute.

Ryan Giles put in an excellent low cross from the left and the ball fell kindly for Biamou who could hardly miss from close range.