Norwich City Under-23s head coach David Wright discussed the growing partnership of Matthew Dennis and Abu Kamara following Friday’s 3-2 defeat to Sunderland U23s.
The pair provided goals for each other with some tidy link-up play in the final third during the first half, and their styles complement each other well.
“We’ve been working with them in that partnership,” Wright said. “Matty’s role is to use his power and pace in behind and Abu’s is to use his intelligence to link his movements off Matty. They’re starting to come together so that’s really exciting and we can continue to work on that.”
As for the game itself, Wright was keen to outline the age difference between the two sides, while accepting the disappointing nature of losing the game in stoppage time.
“It’s disappointing and the boys have had a tough week,” he said. “We’ve played against two teams, with Burnley on Monday and today, where we’ve been average.
“When you play two games in a week, that extra two years at this age is a real big difference. We have to take that into account. We just got run down in the end and it was a bit like that against Burnley when they pushed us back and kept coming.
“We’ve got to understand that. In tactical terms, the two times we were brave enough to execute the plan were the two times we scored. At other times we created opportunities.
“Throughout the game, I didn’t feel we were consistently brave enough because they were front foot and pressurising. It’s alright playing nice football when you’ve got five or ten yards of space, but when that pressure comes and someone’s on top of you, the first-team are excellent at that.
“We’ve got to keep working with the boys and try to get them to that level so we can do it consistently.
“In the last two games, we’re a young 23s team and had six or seven 18-year-olds starting the game, whereas Burnley had a couple of 21, 22 year olds, which is a big difference at this age. An 18-year-old playing against a 21-year-old for 90 minutes is tough.
“It’s not an excuse because we have to do better in the areas I said before, but we’ve got to keep that in mind that we are at the development stage.”