ALTHOUGH the latest City Reserves outing ended in derby defeat to Ipswich Town 1-0 at Carrow Road, some positive news came out of the match for the Canaries with defenders Jen Berthel Askou and Michael Spillane taking a further step forward towards first team contention.

Both players have had long spells out through injury having been looking to cement themselves in Paul Lambert's starting line-up after a good run of form. Danish centre-back Askou has been sidelined with a broken metatarsal sustained in mid-December against Yeovil Town, while Spillane's last match was in early October against Bristol Rovers when he suffered a hamstring injury.

Askou, although disappointed with the result against Town, was pleased to get some more football under his belt and get through a further 60 minutes unscathed: "Physically I feel fine. There's always the last bit of timing you need after being out for a while, you can always improve a bit on that, but physically I felt ok today.

"Physically I feel fit and I don't feel anything from my injury so that's a good sign and it's just up to the gaffer now to judge when I'm ready for him."

Previous to his injury lay-off the Dane had been a regular under Paul Lambert and although he's eager to return he's thrilled that his team-mates have sustained their good run of form: "Of course it's frustrating getting an injury, especially as I was a part of it and it was going well," he said. "But I've enjoyed watching the team from the sidelines doing fantastic for the last couple of months, so everything is going the right way and I'm just happy the lads have carried on doing what they're doing."

Since Askou's injury fellow defender Michael Nelson has slotted in to partner Gary Doherty and centre-back Zak Whitbread has joined the Canaries during the January transfer window. Askou commented: "There's great competition, we have a very strong squad, especially when people are out with injury or suspension, it's difficult to get back in the team - but that's just good for the team, and for the Club there's plenty of good players to cover when something happens.

"There's still a lot of games to go so we'll be needing everybody. We need to get that promotion secured - if I'm going to be a part of that from now on or not that's not the main thing. The main thing is to get the Club up in the Championship and hopefully from a personal perspective I'm hoping to get back in at some point and be part of it again."

DERBY ACTION: Spillane played 60 minutes for City
Reserves against Ipswich at a snowy Carrow Road

Michael Spillane also managed an hour for City's second string in what was a mixed day for the 20-year-old, he was also pleased to get some competitive action: "It was a weird game, we didn't play our best so it wasn't that enjoyable. But at least I've got some minutes under my belt now, but it wasn't an enjoyable game because we didn't play well and we got beat."

With four months passing since his last game, City's last two reserve games have helped Spillane gain some much-needed match fitness: "I've been back training about three weeks and I've now got some game-time under my belt so it's feeling good and hopefully I'll be back in contention soon.

"I've got to be patient, the team are doing well and they are playing and winning, so I've obviously got to be patient and bide my time and wait for my chance - but as long as they keep winning I don't mind." 

On the hamstring injury that has kept him out for so long, he added: "It was probably my hardest time in my football career so far as I'm not normally injured, so it was hard but the physios have dealt with it well and didn't rush me back too soon, so I'm glad to be back and looking forward to playing some more."

For more reaction to City's reserve match with Ipswich Town and to see the full interviews with Askou and Spillane log on to Canaries Player. Not a subscriber? Sign up now!