Canaries youngster Ryan Jarvis is rolling up his sleeves and preparing for a battle which could determine his future at Carrow Road. The 19-year-old striker hit the headlines back in April, 2003, when, at the age of 16 years and 282 days, he became the youngest player to appear in City's first team.

Canaries youngster Ryan Jarvis is rolling up his sleeves and preparing for a battle which could determine his future at Carrow Road.

The 19-year-old striker hit the headlines back in April, 2003, when, at the age of 16 years and 282 days, he became the youngest player to appear in City's first team.

Having already tasted success with England representative teams and City's Academy it seemed only a matter of time before the Fakenham youngster's name would be a regular feature on Nigel Worthington's team-sheets.

But it hasn't really happened: his opportunities have been limited by new arrivals and injury, and, with his three-year contract expiring this summer, Jarvis admits to feeling frustrated at the lack of progress from his latest setback.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, as his goal for the reserves in Monday's 3-2 defeat by Portsmouth testifies, but Jarvis says he is some way off first team consideration after a long-term knee injury.

“I'm getting there,” he told the club's official web site. “Monday's game was my first full game since the injury so I'm pleased to get through it and my injury feels good enough.

“But it will be a while before I get back to full fitness. Hopefully I can put in a lot of good performances for the reserves and push my way back. But we have a lot of good strikers at the club, so it's going to be hard.”

Even if Jarvis does get back into shape, he then faces a fight to work his way to the top of the queue of strikers waiting for their chance - and with Robert Earnshaw, Peter Thorne and Leon McKenzie, plus Darren Huckerby, Paul McVeigh and Jonatan Johansson already ahead of him, that's going to be tough.

Jarvis - who'd also scored for the reserves a week earlier, put in an impressive 90 minutes on Monday and could have added to his 26th-minute opener.

And the elder brother of fellow Academy product Rossi said it was good to be back on the scoresheet after spending most of the season in the physio's room at Colney.

“As a striker, you always want to score,” said Jarvis, who showed a cool head to round Pompey's reserve goalkeeper Andrea Guatelli before slotting home.

“I was really pleased to score. All the lads played really well and we've picked up the quality in the last two games. We probably didn't deserve to lose because of the chances we had, but it's about stopping sloppy goals.”