Nigel Worthington today said he would hold fire on unleashing the next generation of Norwich City youngsters - at least until their mathematical hopes of stealing a top six spot in the Coca-Cola Championship are over.

Manager Nigel Worthington today said he would hold fire on unleashing the next generation of Norwich City youngsters - at least until their mathematical hopes of stealing a top six spot in the Coca-Cola Championship are over.

“Not just yet,” was the City chief's simple verdict as supporters itched for the likes of the two Jarvis brothers, Ryan and Rossi, Michael Spillane and even potentially giant teenage 'keeper Joe Lewis to be given a taste of first team action now the season is drawing to a close.

In fairness, Spillane's prospects will have to be put on hold for the simple reason that the Republic of Ireland Under-17 star is currently stealing the limelight in Dublin where the Irish teenagers face Serbia & Montenegro in their final European Under-17 Championship qualifier tomorrow night - an international commitment which certainly rules him out of Saturday's home clash with Leicester City.

More importantly, however, is the fact that Norwich still have a remote chance of stealing into sixth spot, albeit a slim one following last Friday's dire 2-0 defeat at Burnley and Preston North End's midweek home success over Crewe.

All of which ensures that Worthington will still stick with his senior professionals - for now.

“The door's still ajar - the hill gets a little bit steeper but its nothing that you can't conquer,” said Worthington.

“To give ourselves a fighting chance we'll stick with experience - certainly at this moment in time.”

The manager has clearly conducted his own post-mortem into events at Turf Moor, where Norwich battered Burnley for the first 15 minutes only to fold disastrously.

Worthington dismissed overnight claims that it was down to a lack of passion. Instead he pointed the finger firmly at the players' disappointment at conceding an early goal after their own initial efforts had gone unrewarded.

“To say it was a lack of passion would be unfair - you saw the Sheffield United game and others where there has been loads of passion.

“For me it was disappointment. Disappointment that we failed to take one of the three or four chances we had early on and they scored a goal with their first attack. That rocked us a bit.”

With the Canaries gunning for their fifth straight home success on Saturday, Worthington has virtually a fully-fit squad to select from.

The one notable absentee is Paul McVeigh, who was today definitely ruled out of the Foxes clash.

“It's slow progress waiting for it to settle down,” said Worthington after McVeigh took a hefty whack to the back in that bruising clash with Sheffield United.

“It's a soft tissue injury in an awkward place and it's just taking its time. Hopefully I'd expect Paul to be back in another week or so if all was to go well.”