Under-23s coach Alan Neilson was left extremely disappointed with his side’s defending during a 4-3 defeat at home to Newcastle United.
The Premier League 2 match at The Walks in King’s Lynn saw the visitors take the lead through a Jay Turner-Cooke free kick, before Norwich City hit back with goals from Abu Kamara and Shae Hutchinson (2). However, despite being 3-1 up, the team let their advantage slip as Newcastle hit back to win the game in final minute of the match.
“I was really disappointed with the goals we conceded,” said Alan. “The first goal, we work on set plays and make sure that there are no gaps in the wall. I actually said to the players in the meeting today that the walls have been really good, but today it was split and really poor.
“Then we went 3-1 up and scored some really good goals. We created loads of chances, and we know we should have scored more, but then we can’t give goals away like we did. We are a team that plays out from the back, and we have got to keep on playing that way, but we spoke at half-time about not playing a straight ball into the midfield. That ball gets played, they have nicked it and they have gone on and scored. Then we have given the ball away again and we have kicked long for their fourth goal. There were just poor goals to concede.”
The result leaves Norwich City second in the Premier League table, but with only three points separating the Canaries with sixth placed Stoke, Alan knows there is work to be done defensively between now and the end of the season, if the team are to finish in the play-off places.
“We have got six league games left,” he said. “We have got to make sure we score more goals than we concede and the goals we conceded today were far to easy. Our defenders have got to be stronger. We want them to play, but they have got to be better in terms of their passing of the ball and when we do give them (the opposition) room, we have got to be better in the defending one v one and two v two. Even if we are overloaded, we have got to push them away from goal and not concede as many."