Norwich City beat Oxford United with a dominant performance that saw Mohamed Toure score a hat-trick in his first start for the Canaries.

The striker scored twice inside the opening 20 minutes to put his side in firm control, adding his third just minutes into the second half to seal the hat-trick in just his second appearance for the club.

Oxford have now failed to score in their past five Championship home games, last finding the net at the Kassam Stadium on Boxing Day when they beat Southampton.

This result leaves the U's 23rd in the table, four points from safety with 14 games left to play this season. Meanwhile Norwich jump up one position to 16th, eight points off the top six as their resurgence under Phillipe Clement continues.

The Canaries took the lead in the first minute after some poor defending by Oxford.

Norwich goalkeeper Dan Grimshaw sent a long ball over the top which Toure was able to sprint onto and slip past the onrushing Jamie Cumming before slotting into an empty net.

The Canaries made their dominant start count again on 19 minutes when Ben Chrisene broke into space down the left and curled a low ball into the box that found Toure who slammed it into the roof of the net from close range.

It was the striker's second goal of the game and his third in two matches after signing for the Canaries at the start of February.

Oxford started the second half in brighter fashion and Myles Peart-Harris had a shot from just outside the box fly narrowly over the bar, but it was the visitors who again found the net just moments later.

Toure was played in down the right and looked assured as he powered the ball across the keeper and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net for his hat-trick.

The Oxford fans were on their feet calling for a penalty with just over ten minutes remaining as Jeon Jin-Woo was brought to the floor with his back to goal, but referee Sam Allison waved away their appeals.

Norwich City boss Philippe Clement speaking to BBC Radio Norfolk:

"I asked to start hard because Oxford are a very good defensive team.

"We wanted to start like this and it's the perfect scenario to score after one minute but it was crucial for us in the game.

"Mo (Mohamed Toure) is still a young lad with a lot of potential and several things to improve but he is learning fast.

"This week we showed him several images of (Erling) Haaland and how he creates space for himself as well as (Romelu) Lukaku and how he uses his body.

"It's important to have a striker who can find the spaces in behind and is lethal in front of goal, the football we have played the last couple of weeks means that whoever plays there will have a nice time because all the things around them are much better than a few months ago."

Oxford United boss Matt Bloomfield speaking to BBC Radio Oxford.

"It's very disappointing, we know we got things wrong tonight.

"I know that I got things wrong tonight and I take responsibility for that, we played as high and as attacking as we possibly could but unfortunately the first goal puts a pin in us which is really disappointing.

"All three goals were completely avoidable tonight from our point of view but I'll take responsibility for that.

"We got some things in our set-up as well as how and when we wanted to go and press. I did think we looked quite tired tonight, we've had four game in ten days and I thought we looked emotionally drained by the end."