Good afternoon everybody and welcome back to Carrow Road for today's match against Derby County.

I would like to take this opportunity to bring you up to date with the performances of two of our first year scholars who were on international duty recently.

I mentioned in the last programme that Josh Dawkin and Dario Dumic were representing Wales and Denmark respectively in the group stages of the UEFA European under-17 Championships.

Josh featured in all three of Wales' group games, the first of which was a 4-1 win over Faroe Isles in which Josh got on the scoresheet.

Their second game was against Kazakhstan and ended in a 2-0 defeat, their final group game was against Portugal which once again ended in a defeat, this time losing 4-2.

In the final game of the group the Faroe Isles beat Kazakhstan meaning that Josh and his Welsh team-mates qualified for the next round on goals scored.

Dario and his Danish team-mates enjoyed a much more straight forward route to the next round with three convincing wins in the group stages.

Their first win was against Romania where they enjoyed a 3-0 win, followed by a comfortable 4-1 over Israel with Dario playing centre back in both matches.

These two results meant that Denmark had qualified for the next round of the tournament in first place before having to play their final group match against Lithuania. Dario, along with a number of players who had appeared in the first two games, was rested for this match, however Denmark's strength in depth was evident as they won they game 3-1.

I have heard good reports on both players' performances and I know that the coaching staff on both teams are pleased with the progress both boys are making.

The next phase of the tournament is the Elite Stage which will take place in early spring 2009 and following their performances, I am sure both players will be hopeful of being involved.

I would like to congratulate Josh and Dario on their achievements and wish them all the best in the Elite phase of the tournament.

Enjoy the game.

Ricky Martin
Academy Manager