Alan Neilson: Under-23s need to start games better

For the second match in succession, a slow start saw the Canaries chasing the game early on.

Against Reading in the Premier League Cup on Monday, the Canaries found themselves a goal down inside nine minutes.

And within eight minutes of their Premier League 2 trip to Burnley, it was a similar story - they found themselves two down after 13 minutes, and despite producing a admirable fightback either side of half-time, they left the Barnfield Training Centre empty-handed.

Speaking with canaries.co.uk, Neilson said: "It was a frustrating one, we gave the ball away a lot early on through some mistakes and some unlucky play.

"We started to play after 15 minutes, although we were 2-0 by that point. From then on, we played between the lines and kept the ball a bit better. TDP (Tom Dickson-Peters) took his first goal really well.

"However, a couple of mistakes in the second-half and we're two down again.

"We have to start games better. If you take the first 15 away, we won 3-2, so we need to make sure we're at it from the start."

Neilson is looking for his team to strike a balance between creating chances and restricting opponents at the other end.

It's certainly never dull when they're in action, with the team scoring 19 and conceding 20 in their eight PL2 matches so far.

"We have a process. We make sure the lads always play out from the back, regardless of the situation. We don't want to move away from it.

"We want to still create chances but we need to tighten up a little bit defensively.

"It's difficult at the moment because we've got a few lads playing out of position because of injuries, but we'll work on things on the training ground."

Next up for the Canaries is the visit of Birmingham City to The Walks on Friday evening (7pm KO). Ticket information will be announced in due course.