Norwich City Under-23s host West Bromwich Albion at the Lotus Training Centre in their first of a double-header against the Baggies this Friday (12pm KO).
David Wright’s side only have two games left of the campaign, both of which are against West Brom after a postponement earlier in the season.
Going into the fixture, City are eleventh with 24 points in the Premier League 2 table, and still just three points behind Fulham with a game in hand. With six points still up for grabs, City could hit the 30 point-mark with two wins to end the season, giving them a chance of taking a mid-table finish.
West Brom are currently bottom of the Premier League 2 table with 21 points after 21 games, giving them three matches left of their campaign. Much like the Canaries, three wins to sign-off the season will see the Baggies climb to 30 points.
This Friday’s game will be the young Canaries second game of the week after they took a 3-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday afternoon. City started brightly, but had their best chance denied by the post as Wolves went on to take the opener through Luke Cundle.
An eventful second half saw the Canaries come close to scoring again through Tom Dickson-Peters, but Owen Hesketh and Jack Scott's finishes were enough to keep the clean sheet and all three points for the hosts.
The Canaries and Baggies last met in October of the 2019-2020 season at the Lotus Training Centre, West Brom taking all three points after a 4-2 victory.
Under-23s captain Jon Tomkinson says the final two games of the season are all about finishing positively, the centre-half adding that him and his teammates still have to ‘prove themselves’ and fight for their places in the starting line-up.
“We really want to put things right, especially to finish the season on a high-note. We have been picking up unfortunate and disappointing results, but you learn a lot more from failure than you do success.
“We have to stay disciplined as a team and people have to prove themselves again and make a point, we’ve all got places to solidify in the team. We really want to look after each other and like I said earlier, put things right.
“Going out on a high shows we’re learning, we’ve set ourselves a big target to dominate both these games against West Brom for all 90 minutes. I think good results will show how much we’ve learned and how much we’re able to apply from these lessons.”
Discussing his role as captain for a large part of the U23s season, Tomkinson described donning the armband as an honour, saying that it was a key target for him to improve his leadership on the pitch.
“It’s a very good feeling, I feel honoured and proud to wear the captain’s armband. For me, a big part of my development was to be that leader for the team. To lead the boys out is a very nice feeling to have.”