Skipper Adam Drury has backed City's young guns not to let the side down if called upon for East Anglian derby duty against Ipswich on Sunday.Drury played the full 90 minutes in last night's 3-0 Coca-Cola Championship defeat at Burnley after missing all but the first minute of Saturday's 2-1 win at Leicester, when he suffered a bad reaction to dental treatment.

Skipper Adam Drury has backed City's young guns not to let the side down if called upon for East Anglian derby duty against Ipswich on Sunday.

Drury played the full 90 minutes in last night's 3-0 Coca-Cola Championship defeat at Burnley after missing all but the first minute of Saturday's 2-1 win at Leicester, when he suffered a bad reaction to dental treatment.

By the time yesterday's match ended, the Canaries had four teenagers on the field in 18-year-old striker Chris Martin, 16-year-old full debutant Kris Renton, 18-year-old midfielder Michael Spillane and, for the last four minutes, 17-year-old forward Bally Smart, making his senior debut. In addition, they had 18-year-olds Andrew Cave-Brown and Patrick Bexfield on the bench.

Drury admitted: "It's been awkward. You don't want to bring young lads into a team that's not doing great. I think they've been thrown in at the deep end and they've all done a great, great job. You'd like to blood one or two at a time, here and there, but we've had to put them all in at the same time and at the minute they're doing a great job."

The hothouse atmosphere of Sunday's visit of Ipswich may not be an ideal introduction for City's newcomers, but they may have no choice.

Said Drury: "If they play like they did tonight, they'll have no problems because I thought they did very well. I thought the whole team did, to be honest. I thought the result was very unjust. If they're involved Sunday, I'm sure they won't let themselves down, like they haven't tonight.

"The result is very disappointing because I didn't think we deserved to get beaten 3-0."

Injuries to Darren Huckerby, Dion Dublin and Lee Croft added to Norwich woes.

"We had Hucks missing at the start of the game in the warm-up and I think the journey, taking seven hours to get here yesterday, ended up costing him his back," said Drury.

"But all the young lads came in and I thought they did a great job. I thought we played some good football and created chances. In the end we were chasing the game and that's when they got the second and third.

"I think we deserved to get something from the game. We had chances, the 'keeper made a great save, Dion hit the bar. There were one or two other good chances that weren't taken. The disappointing thing is people will look at the result and think we got battered, which we didn't. I think anyone who was here tonight will realise that.

"At the minute that's the way things are going. Dion's picked up a knock, Crofty's got a knock and Hucks is struggling as well. We can't seem to get through a game or a week without picking up another injury or two.

"I'm feeling better than I was. I think my front tooth's coming out again. But in terms of pain, it's a lot, lot better. I didn't take any painkillers before the game and I was fine.

“It's all good at the minute."