Norwich City Res 2, Peterborough Utd Res 1: Ian Crook has admitted he has not decided whether to stay at Norwich City beyond the end of his current contract this summer.

Norwich City Res 2,

Peterborough Utd Res 1

Ian Crook has admitted he has not decided whether to stay at Norwich City beyond the end of his current contract this summer.

The Canaries' reserve team boss oversaw a 2-1 win against Peterborough United's second string at Colney yesterday afternoon, thanks to Paul McVeigh's penalty and George Francomb's bundled effort.

City's strong line-up also saw Zak Whitbread and Cody McDonald return to action after injury, while Adam Drury pushed his claims for a first team recall with an impressive 70-minute outing.

But Crook, who worked in the Japanese Second Division in 2007 before moving across from Australia to join Bryan Gunn's management team in January last year, is set to sit down with manager Paul Lambert to discuss his future.

“There's a few things obviously to discuss,” said Crook. “It's been a difficult one without my family. They're still in Australia and I've been away from my wife for three years now pretty much, and probably spent three or four months with her in that time. So it's a tough one.

“As I say, I've really enjoyed being back but there's a few things I need to sit down and have a chat with the gaffer about. The gaffer has been absolutely magnificent from day one for me since coming in and I believe I've got a good working relationship with him and Ian (Culverhouse).

“I'm sure we'll have a few chats over the coming weeks.”

While it is unclear whether Crook will still be at the club next season, he does believe City will be able to make things work after they announced on Monday night they will be dropping out of the Totesport.com Combination for the second time in three seasons.

“We've had a few this year where people have rung us, like Clive Allen (at Tottenham) has rung on a couple of occasions and wanted games at short notice where we couldn't make it,” added Crook.

“It's something the gaffer will sit down and go through. It's trying to find the right thing to make it work. Obviously there's a lot of games that get called off in this comp because teams want to protect their pitch and then others where there's little bit of rain and they want to call it off.

“So we've had a situation where we've gone a long while without a game and then all of a sudden they are flooding in.”

Whitbread and McDonald were both back after suffering injuries in the first team's 2-1 defeat at Millwall at the start of February, and just two days' training.

Drury looked impressive during his run out but had to ride a series of crunching tackles, including the one that earned Norwich a 37th-minute penalty that was duly converted by McVeigh.

It cancelled out Josh Simpson's 14th-minute opener for the visitors - a sweet strike from 20 yards.

And just eight minutes after the restart City had the lead, half-time substitute George Francombe making the most of Anthony McNamee's corner via a post and Posh goalkeeper Jim McKeown.

Having a strong City side at his disposal, Crook added: “I was a bit biased but I actually said this team could probably challenge the (League One) top two as it stands alone.

“I though we were excellent second half and the first 10, 15 minutes we passed the ball well and the attitudes were good, so pleased with that.”

Norwich: Rudd, Spillane, Askou, Whitbread (Francomb 46), Drury (Adeyemi 70), McVeigh, Hughes, Gill, McNamee, Johnson, McDonald (Dawkin 46). Subs not used: Steer (GK), Kelly, Adeyemi.

Peterborough: McKeown, Austin, Day, McCrae (Dove), Piergianni, Gaughran, Green, Crook, Mills (Newell), Simpson (Adjei), Koranteng, Subs not used: Bishop, Cole.

Referee: R Whitton.

Attendance: 137.