Michael Bailey Norwich City manager Glenn Roeder has promised to stand by his man after Matty Pattison was arrested for drink driving in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Michael Bailey

Norwich City manager Glenn Roeder has promised to stand by his man after Matty Pattison was arrested for drink driving in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The 21-year-old midfielder has been bailed to appear before Norwich magistrates on March 31, after being stopped by police outside the gates of the Canaries' Colney training ground.

And Roeder acknowledged that both himself and his team-mates would be supporting the midfielder through the coming weeks.

“It's always disappointing if one of your players does something that he should not be doing and bearing in mind we all realise that it's not something he shouldn't of been doing because he's a footballer - he shouldn't have been doing it full stop, in general society,” said Roeder.

“The important thing is that at the moment, and what he will get - I've spoken to him and I have spoken to his team-mates - that he deserves to be supported. He will be supported. We are a family here. There is not one person in the world who hasn't made a mistake that they regret and that's why I say if you haven't made a mistake in your life you throw the first stone, and there won't be a stone thrown.

“Not to show that he has our support, in my opinion as a human being, it would be wrong. At times, all of us need support in our lives for whatever reason and this is an opportunity for me and the rest of the players, and the club, which I know we will do, to support him.

“But that doesn't take away the fact of how serious we know what happened is and we wouldn't have wanted that to happen, but it has.”

Roeder also spoke candidly over reports made by one tabloid newspaper yesterday that the South African had checked into the Sporting Chance Clinic in Hampshire, after he was arrested in his pants and T-shirt at City's Colney training ground.

“You've asked that on the back of a story that's on the back pages of one of the tabloids this morning,” said Roeder at yesterday's press conference. “That doesn't please me. I know the journalist. I know the journalist very well and he has a story that has truth in it, but the few lines that he could have dedicated to it didn't fill enough space.

“So there were a lot of things there that were added-on extras to make it look more sensational and, if you want, make it look worse for Matty.

“It was very bad what has happened, we know that, but some of the things that he [the journalist] has said, he's certainly got his facts completely wrong. There is no club insider, a source within the club, a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. Crikey, we're much more intelligent than that.”

The Canaries manager explained why the weekend's events would not rule Pattison out of his thinking for City's crunch Coca-Cola Championship match against Colchester United at Carrow Road on Saturday.

“Knowing Matty like I do, I can't tell you how disappointed he is that he allowed that to happen. He's very unhappy with himself, like I would have expected him to be, and although that's going to be with him for life - that's not something that you can just rub out - he's got to come through it and come through it in the manner that it never happens again.

“If it happened to any other person in society that had a job to do thereafter, I'm sure that person would be allowed to go back to work until such times as it has been dealt with by the authorities,” added Roeder.

“In short, if I think he's right for first eleven selection on Saturday he will be selected, and he will have to show a strength of character to come through it. He's certainly not the first person in this country ever to be breathalysed and over the limit, except 99 per cent of the people that are, don't live their life in the public eye and go back to work the following day.”