NORWICH City Under-18's produced a battling performance at Colney Training Centre this afternoon to fight back from 2-0 down to beat Charlton Athletic 3-2.
The visitors started brightly and could have taken the lead after only two minutes. City gave away possession on the edge of their area and allowed a Charlton forward a shot at goal, which went just wide of Remi Matthews goal.
On 20 minutes Charlton had a penalty appeal turned down when their forward went down under a challenge from George Francomb, but the referee waved away the claims.
City eventually got themselves into the game and began to dominate possession, forcing a series of corner kicks, which unfortunately they could not convert.
On 31 minutes, against the run of play, the Addicks took the lead. A long ball forward was flicked on into the path of their centre forward who slotted the ball low into the corner of the Norwich goal.
Almost straight from the kick-off for the second half Charlton extended their lead. The young Canaries were guilty of giving away possession in the middle of the pitch, allowing the Charlton forward a run at goal, and he rounded Remi Matthews to make the score 2-0.
City responded in the best possible manner and scored immediately from the restart, this time Charlton were guilty of giving away possession, Danny Kelly capitalised and found the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-1.
On 53 minutes Sam Kelly made a probing run, played the ball into the feet of his namesake Danny Kelly who opened up and bent a shot to the far post, but the Charlton goalkeeper did well to save and turn round his post for a corner.
The resulting corner was half-cleared by Charlton, but the ball fell to Richard Brindley, who from 20 yards out, fired an unstoppable shot into the Charlton net to level the scores.
On the hour mark Theo Jones replaced Jason Dobbs and on 78 minutes Alex Stephens replaced Richard Brindley.
With 10 minutes remaining Norwich were awarded a free-kick for a foul on Sam Kelly. George Francomb took the kick, and the Charlton keeper was at full stretch once more to turn the shot away for a corner.
With eight minutes to go Norwich scored to complete a remarkable comeback. A deep free-kick played into the heart of the Charlton area was headed down by Danny Kelly into the path of Josh Dawkin who prodded the ball into the net from close range to score the winner.
Speaking to canaries.co.uk after the game, Academy Manager Ricky Martin said: "I was pleased with the attitude of the players, after going a goal down against the run of play, to concede again so soon after the break was a concern but I was delighted with the way we responded, scoring immediately after their second helped us enormously. I felt we would cause them problems and would create chances to score and I was proved right when we went on to win the game."
CITY: Matthews, Osemwegie, Gordon, Brindley (A.Stephens 78), Francomb, Florence, Clarke, Dobbs (Jones 60), D.Kelly, S.Kelly, Dawkin. Sub not used: Clunan.
Pictures courtesy of Richard Phillips
