Norwich City Under-23s coach Alan Neilson was delighted with his side’s clean sheet in their 4-0 win at home to Middlesbrough on Friday.
“I was really pleased defensively,” he said. “We wanted our players to be aggressive with a high press and play in their half. We didn’t start well in the first half but they had the wind, which made it a bit hard for us. After 15-20 minutes, we took control of the game and scored good goals in the second half.
“We have standards. Even if you’re 2-0 down or 2-0 up, you’ve got to keep on going and pushing forward. It’s about developing the players. Fans like to see goals in the first-team as much as in the Under-23s.
“Last time we played Middlesbrough, we had played a cup game on the Friday night before playing them on the Sunday. I’m not using the excuses. I’m just happy we didn’t get any injuries. We were okay that day but too sloppy at the back. We worked on our press all week and it worked well today.”
Christoph Zimmermann featured for the full 90 minutes as he continued to get more action with the U23s.
“Like any first team players coming down, Zimbo is a big strong character who speaks to the players and they can learn from him,” Neilson said.
“We’ve got partnerships all around the team with the front three and midfield three. One gets forward, two sit or one sits in and two go forward. Once you’re 2-0 or 3-0 up players have more confidence and start rotating. I think we had around 600 passes in the game and looked threatening. A lot of players will be disappointed they didn’t score more and Flynn that he didn’t score a hat-trick.”