It’s back to business on home turf for Norwich City Under-18s, as they host Aston Villa in their second U18 Premier League fixture of the 2020-21 season (1pm KO).
Following along with their U23s counterparts, Steve Weaver’s U18s side will be taking on the Villans a week after a dominant win, beating West Brom 5-1 last Saturday.
Including their pre-season run, the young City side have taken wins over Cambridge United Under-18s and West Brom, as well as a 4-4 draw to senior side Wroxham FC.
City last played the Villans back in February of the 2019-20 season, their last game before the postponement of the campaign. It was a frustrating afternoon for the Canaries, who had to settle for a draw against the side after a late leveller.
After coming from behind to take the game to 3-2 in the 82nd minute, ex-Barcelona youngster Louie Barry scored his second goal of the game in the 88th minute, seeing the game end in a stalemate.
It wasn’t as easy, but Villa also managed to start on winning ways in the U18 Premier League, taking a 2-1 win over Leicester City, all goals coming in the first 35 minutes.
Under-18s centre-half Jaden Warner is excited for the game ahead, emphasising the team’s optimism after their big win last week.
“We’re going into the game quite positively, the team feel positive after the way we played against West Brom, we’re looking forward to playing and showing what we can do and showing Aston Villa what we’ve got.
“As a backline we were strong, the communication was there and we all believed in each other, I think we did well as a back four last week.”
Discussing the impact of a win going into the game against Villa, Warner firmly believes the team have the skillsets required to go into every match with confidence, especially after scoring five goals.
“It’s always good to start off strong, especially at the start of the season and I think we showed that as a team, all of us throughout the whole 90 minutes last week.
“As a team we know our ability, so we’re always going into the next game confident. Our offence is dangerous and scoring five goals last week must have Villa thinking we’ve got a strong attack. I think they’ll be fearing that a bit, so we’re confident.”