City youngster wants U23s to build on improved form against Stoke

Norwich City U23s return to Premier League Two action when they host Stoke at Colney tonight, looking to build on an impressive 2-1 win over Manchester United U23s in their last game.

The young Canaries had won just one of their last 20 matches before their win away to United in their last Division Two game, building on a 3-3 draw at Nottingham Forest in the PL Cup thanks to goals from Adam Idah and Gassan Ahadme.

City midfielder Saul Milovanovic said: “The Manchester United game was a great win. Defensively we worked hard and were solid, and the team showed a lot of character and determination throughout, especially when coming back from behind.

“We started off a bit slow, but Idah scored the penalty and then Gassan scored a really good goal towards the end of the game which I thought overall we deserved.

“After we scored to go in front we did really well defensively when they started to try and get and equaliser, we all stayed switched on to see the game out and get the three points.”

Idah’s penalty at Leigh Sports Village took the Republic of Ireland Under-19 international to 11 goals in 20 games for City’s U23s so far this season, while big striker Ahadme – a recent arrival from Spanish youth football – has two in four matches.

Stoke are three places and five points better off in seventh place in the table and are unbeaten in six PL2 games ahead of tonight’s game at Colney (7pm).

“We went through a bit of a bad patch in the middle of the season, but when you look at our last two games we have picked up a bit, so hopefully we can take this bit of form into the Stoke game,” Milovanovic added, speaking to City’s website.

“In our last game I think we had five or six players who are still eligible to play for the under-18s, so it just shows the potential of the players coming through at this club.”