Back on home soil, Norwich City Under-18s host Tottenham Hotspur this Saturday (11:30am kick-off) at the Lotus Training Centre.
The past week has had lessons in abundance for the U18s, after being knocked out of both the FA Youth Cup and Premier League Cup by Manchester United (2-0) and Stoke City (8-0). Although it may be a week the team will want to forget, the biggest lessons always come in defeat.
The last week means that the Canaries have won one, drawn two and lost two of their last five games.
A win would keep the young Canaries cruise in the U18 Premier League alive, as they hope to keep their chase of Arsenal and Reading going to reach the higher positions of ninth and tenth.
The Canaries last met Spurs back in August of the current season, the game ending 4-0 in the north London side’s favour as they took all three points home.
Spurs are currently 5th in the U18 Premier League, sitting on 22 points, barely lagging behind Brighton by two points for fourth place.
What’s more impressive, Tottenham have won four and lost just one of their last five games. That loss came to Wigan in the FA Youth Cup, begging the question of the importance of the cup to the side.
Despite recent results, U18s captain Zach Dronfield says the team are looking ahead to Tottenham with confidence.
“We’re feeling good, we’ve put last week behind us and turned our focus to the league, we’re just looking to try get the win and get that feeling back.”
Addressing that difficult 8-0 defeat to Stoke in the Premier League Cup, Dronfield was honest in the reason behind the loss.
“If I’m honest, on the day our opponents just wanted it more. We didn’t play to our true selves and play that proper football that we have been playing the last few months.
"We bought it upon ourselves to have a game like that, as I said earlier, we’ve just put it behind us and look to go again”
With the Tottenham game fast approaching, Dronfield says that the team have still got a great vibe in training, and just look forward to the game, especially those who are returning from injury.
“Besides last week our run of form was great and showing that we’re getting better and better, especially in the league. We’re confident enough to think that we can get back on that winning streak.”
“The boys coming back from injury are buzzing to be back in training, it adds that extra good vibe to the team and really brings the mood up even more, so we’re looking forward to the game.”