Good evening everybody and welcome back to Carrow Road for tonight's match against Reading.

As this is the last home game of the season I thought I would take this opportunity to summarise what has proved to be an excellent season for the Academy.

Highlight of the season has to be the debuts of two Academy products in the first team. After a lengthy spell without any debuts for our players it was great to see Luke Daley and Korey Smith running out on to the pitch at Carrow Road in front of sell-out crowds. The reception they received was magnificent and I am sure they, and a few of the other young players on the fringe of the first team, are hungry for more of the same.

In addition to this, Tom Adeyemi was awarded with his first professional contract. Tom has been a member of the Academy since the age of nine and myself and a number of staff in place at the Academy have witnessed his development first hand. Tom is a very hard worker and a quick learner, he has a great attitude and is now on the verge of making his first team debut. This is a great achievement for someone in his first year as a scholar and is testament to the hard work he has put in on the training field.

This year the youth team progressed to the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, the furthest they have been in the competition since 1993. Our run saw us triumph over three Premier League clubs in Wigan Athletic, Stoke City and Everton before we eventually succumbed to a very narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of the current holders Manchester City. On the plus side, eight of the starting eleven who appeared in the Manchester City game are eligible for next year's competition, so I am hopeful of another good run in 2009-10.

The youth team have also enjoyed an excellent season in the Premier Academy League, we are currently in third place in Group A behind Arsenal and one point behind Crystal Palace who are in second place with two games remaining. A strong finish to our season against Coventry City and MK Dons will see us secure our highest league standing since the Academy system was introduced.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all players at the Academy, schoolboys and scholars, for their efforts this season, my staff for their dedication and expertise and also Friends of Norwich City Youth and our other supporters groups including the Capital Canaries, Norwich City Independent Supporters Association and the Ambassadors Club for their financial support. We are certainly moving in the right direction and I am confident we will soon see a number of Academy produced players appearing in our first team.

Enjoy the game.

Ricky Martin
Academy Manager