A VISITING Crystal Palace brought the young Canaries unbeaten home run to an abrupt end, with the Eagles taking all three points with a 3-1 victory.

After an even start, Crystal Palace created two good opportunities to take the lead but found goalkeeper Jed Steer in good shot-stopping form when he denied the visitors twice in quick succession.

Kenny Reeves had a good chance to open the scoring for City as he rose to meet Sam Habergham's corner - however his goal-bound header was blocked by the Palace defence.

Crystal Palace took the lead soon after - when a ball through the centre of the defence was only half cleared City 'keeper Steer found himself exposed and was unable to prevent the Palace forward from slotting the ball into the net.

Norwich responded well and when a long ball upfield found Danny Kelly in space between the defence and the goalkeeper, he made no mistake firing a good shot across goal into the far corner.

Half time: Norwich 1 Crystal Palace 1

City Goalkeeper Jed Steer dives to his
left at Colney against Crystal Palace

Almost straight after the break Palace took advantage of some hesitant defending to retake the lead; a cross from the left found the forward with lots of time and space to score from close range.

Korey Smith replaced Tom Adeyemi with half an hour to go and was soon in the thick of the action. Norwich City continued to create chances of their own, with Smith, Kelly and Reeves all guilty of missing good opportunities.

As Norwich pressed forward looking for an equaliser, Palace broke free down the right hand side and another close range effort brought the score to 3-1.

Johnbull Omoregie was introduced with just under 10 minutes to play, replacing Josh Dawkin. Norwich continued to press forward, and though Crystal Palace were reduced to 10 men for the last few minutes of the game, were unable to reduce the arrears.

Full time: Norwich 1 Crystal Palace 3

Ricky Martin, Academy Manager said: "I was very disappointed with the first half performance, considering the starting eleven was near enough the same as the team who had performed so well against Villa last week.

"However in the second half we certainly showed more character, having more possession and creating more chances, but I must admit Crystal Palace fully warranted their victory over the 90 minutes. I will now be looking for a response from the group in our away trip to Southampton next week."

NORWICH: Steer, Francomb, Cooper, Adeyemi (Smith 60), Stephens, Habergham, Daley, Lathrope, Reeves, Kelly, Dawkin (Omoregie 82). Subs not used: Rudd, Ball.