Norwich City Under-23s Head Coach David Wright says his side made mistakes at both ends of the pitch during Monday night’s 4-0 Premier League 2 Division 2 defeat to West Ham United U23s.
The Canaries were well in the game up until West Ham got their second goal in the 58th minute, and Wright was left ruing missed chances as City went into the half-time break 1-0 behind.
“In the first half we played really well and should have been 3-0 up but we missed a few chances,” he said. “In the second half, we slightly came off our performance level and let them start dominating a bit more.
“In terms of three of their goals they scored, we’d done a lot of prep on that. Their front three want to get in behind. They do out-to-in runs, so we prepped the boys, that’s their strength and that’s what they want to do.
“It’s really disappointing and quite naïve from us, even though we prepped for that, that they still hurt us three times from that. Is the score line a fair reflection? Yes and no. We created a number of chances and didn’t take them. They created a few but we were poor in letting them create them.”
The Hammers remain unbeaten at the top of the league, but Wright says the order of the table is irrelevant to the errors that were made in the match.
“Whether they’re bottom of the league, top of the league or mid-table, it doesn’t matter, we should have been 3-0 up at half-time,” he said. “Collectively, it’s a big lesson. It’s a story of two boxes – we’ve got to take our chances and defend simple, long, straight balls over the top of the back four better.”
Right-back Ethan Vaughan was presented with the challenge of defending against pacey winger Amadou Diallo in the first half and then Xande Silva in the second – a task the Under-18s defender relished despite not being able to play the full 90.
“He’s just come into our group and ended up going off with cramp, so physically he’s not able to sustain what we’re asking him yet but that will come,” Wright added. “He’s a good kid and works really hard. He’ll just get fitter and stronger the more he trains with us.”