Norwich hit the Carrow Road goal trail for the second time in five days as they beat Luton 4-2 to continue their climb towards the Championship play-off zone.

The Canaries had to work harder for their win than they did on Tuesday, when they hammered Plymouth 6-1, but it was a deserved success against a Luton side who contributed to their own downfall with some poor defending.

Having gone behind to a soft goal from Elijah Adebayo, Norwich turned the game around before the break with two goals from Ante Crnac, doubling his tally for the season.

Luton hit back just after the interval through Jacob Brown but two late goals from Emiliano Marcondes and Borja Sainz – his 16th this season – condemned the visitors to a sixth straight away defeat.

All three goals in the first half came from defensive errors, with Norwich the first to be punished on 20 minutes.

Anis Ben Slimane’s misplaced back pass to Angus Gunn deflected off Jordan Clark into the path of Adebayo, who then had the simple task of slipping the ball past the exposed goalkeeper.

Norwich were level inside five minutes with a poor defensive header from Teden Mengi, and an equally weak punch from keeper Thomas Kaminski, seeing the ball fall nicely for Crnac to blast home from 10 yards.

The Canaries’ second goal on 33 minutes was also down to rank bad defending, this time from Tahith Chong.

The midfielder unwisely tried to shepherd an overhit pass out of touch near the byline, allowing Jack Stacey to scoop the ball into the six yard box where Crnac was waiting to apply a straightforward finishing touch.

Kaminski then kept the Hatters in it with a superb fingertip save to keep out Shane Duffy’s header from a corner.

Luton were quickly back on level terms in the second half, with Brown equalising in the 48th minute with another scruffy goal.

This time Shandon Baptiste’s corner caused panic in the home defence and the ball fell kindly for Brown to fire high into the net from a few yards.

The game then swung from end to end, with both sides having their chances and improved defending at both ends keeping the scores level.

But, with nine minutes of normal time remaining, Norwich got their noses in front again with Crnac providing an assist to go with his two goals.

The Croatian won a crucial challenge on the edge of the box and unselfishly squared for Marcondes to slide the ball home at the back post.

The hosts made the points safe five minutes later by scoring a fourth, with substitute Onel Hernandez bursting into the box from the right before cutting back for Sainz to apply his latest assured finishing touch.