Young Canaries beaten by Royals in cup semi-final

MATT Gill says an 'uncharacteristic' spell at a vital time came at the ultimate cost for Norwich City's Under-23s after they were beaten in the Premier League Cup semi-final by Reading on Sunday.

Having had the better of the early chances, City conceded three times in 20 minutes before half-time at the Madejski Stadium to leave themselves with a mountain to climb.

Although Ray Grant pulled a goal back early in the second period, they were unable to make further inroads into the deficit with Reading adding a late fourth to seal victory.

Speaking to canaries.co.uk after the game, interim boss Gill said: "We're really disappointed as we had a spell where we weren't ourselves at all.

"That's cost us, because we'd started brightly and moved the ball well for the first 25 minutes or so. The spell before half-time we were quite poor and that's the biggest regret we'll take from it.

"We came away from our standards and from our levels. After conceding we felt a little bit sorry for ourselves, which is something you can't do in cup semi-finals.

"There is a lot of learning to be taken from that minute spell about coming together as a group rather than having chins on chests. Sometimes you have to grind it out and stay in the game.

"It's part of their development but we're really disappointed to go out the way we did."

With the Development Squad season having now drawn to a close, Gill explained what's next for City's youngsters now the competitive action has concluded.

"The lads will be in for the next couple of weeks and we'll be having some individual meetings," he added.

"We'll be talking about how the season has gone, as well as the plans for the summer. When the season ends properly we'll be able to assess what we can do better next year.

"It's the first time they've had a 40-plus game season, and they've had loads of experiences. They've had two semi-finals so that kind of exposure will help them no end.

"It's important they take forward what they've experienced this season."