Match preview: Norwich City U18s v Fulham U18s

Going into their penultimate fixture, the U18s find themselves ninth in the table with 29 points. With just six points left up for grabs, the Canaries can reach the 35-point mark if they win their remaining games.

Meanwhile, Fulham are flying in the league as they sit second with 50 points. The Cottagers also have a game in hand over league-leaders Crystal Palace, meaning they could take the top spot with a win over the young Canaries this weekend.

Three points for City could see them climb up a place in the table and pass West Bromwich Albion who are just a point ahead but would still see them trail seventh-place Chelsea by two points.

It was a tale of two halves as City took a 5-2 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday afternoon. Tony Springett gave the Canaries the lead with two fine finishes, before Dane Scarlett pulled one back to wrap up the first half.

A controlled second half from Spurs then saw them take the lead back convincingly as they scored four goals in 45 minutes to take all three points.

The young Canaries last faced Fulham just over a month ago when they travelled to the London School of Economics in their 5-0 loss to the Cottagers.

Under-18s right-back Sol Alidor-Hamilton says his team have a score to settle with this weekend’s opponents, and plenty of motivation to put things right, after their loss to Spurs earlier this week.

“It was very disappointing to be up 2-1 in the first half and then lose 5-2. Everybody’s heads were down, but it’s just something that we need to react to and make right this weekend.

“On Saturday, we need to bring those improvements from Tuesday and make them right and be sure we put a good performance in to develop from what happened.

“We don’t want Fulham to take three points at home last time and then do that again this time round. That loss is a big motivator for us, we want to put on a show and avoid embarrassment.”

After wins earlier this season against Crystal Palace and Brighton, both of which were comeback victories, Alidor-Hamilton says he and the team are hoping for a similar story to those games but are treating it like every other game.

“We’re hoping for a similar story as our other underdog results, but we treat it like a normal game. We know we’re the underdogs, but we can’t look at it like that. We need to make sure that we treat it like any other game and focus on our performance.”