Norwich City Under-23s head coach David Wright praised the work ethic of his side following Monday’s final game of the Premier League 2 Division 2 season at West Brom.
“It was a brand new shape that we’ve been working on,” he said after the 3-2 loss. “The team that started the game hadn’t practiced it all together so we had six days of practicing a new shape with three quarters of the team.
“For the boys to come out and perform the way they did and show the courage they did in possession of the ball, I was really pleased. In the second half, they changed their plan and because we’re in the infancy of teaching the lads how to play this new formation, we didn’t quite understand how to then adapt what we were doing.
“They took a 3-0 lead and then changed their shape which worked in our favour and we ended up bringing it back to 3-2 and maybe could have got something out of the game, but the result isn’t so important for us, it’s how the players apply themselves.
“The 23s team changes so much during the season with players going out on loan, 18s coming up and so on, so I’m really proud of every single one of them.
“When we come back for pre-season, we’ll be changing again and there will be a couple of lads leaving us and going onto the next chapter of their career. There will be some who need to develop out on loan.
“This group, you can’t fault their honesty. They put in a shift all the time and will never give up, which is a great quality to have as a person, a player and a team. It’s something they should continue to display.”