GLENN Roeder has spoken ahead of this evening's Spurs friendly at Carrow Road.

Speaking exclusively to canaries.co.uk, the City boss said that tonight's match would provide a healthy challenge for his players. "It will be an incredibly hard test for the squad. First of all, I would like to thank Tottenham for agreeing to come and play us.

"It will be a difficult game, but also a good match for us. The squad is starting to take shape - we have one or two injuries which means that certain players won't be able to play tonight which is a shame so we are a little bit depleted but none the less it will be a super game to be involved in."

The game against Tottenham will be City's first home game of the pre-season, and will offer Canary fans the chance to witness some of the latest additions to their team perform on home turf. Roeder told First News that he was delighted at having such class opposition at Carrow Road. "It's not easy getting sides of the quality of Spurs to come and play pre-season friendlies. As you can see, most of the top Premier League teams are touring round the world at the moment.

"Damien Comolli, who I approached, agreed to bring Tottenham up a couple of weeks after I asked him and he spoke to their manager Ramos first, and they agreed to play us tonight. It will be an incredibly difficult game, but also a good match for us."

The Spurs squad will be watched by a full house at Carrow Road, with a sell-out crowd making their way to watch the friendly. On the Canary faithful, City's manager made it clear he was proud of his team's support.

"You have to actually come and work for Norwich City to realise how good the crowd are. When you are an opposing manager or an opposing player, you're in and you're out on a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday or Wednesday night. You don't know how much passion there is amongst the people who love Norwich until you come and work for them. It's great to be back at Carrow Road tonight."

Today's game will also see the first sighting of the fan's '12th man' shirt. Main Sponsors AVIVA have commissioned a 60 by 40ft replica of the new home shirt, which will be positioned on the centre circle ahead of each first team game at Carrow Road.

AVIVA Sales and Marketing Director John Kitson said: "As a season ticket holder myself, I know Norwich fans are amongst the best in the country - they really are the team's 12th man on the pitch - and we at Aviva wanted to celebrate our first home game as sponsors by giving those loyal supporters their very own huge shirt in recognition of the huge part they play in the club's success both on and off the pitch. On the ball City!"

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