Norwich City Under-18s put in improved second half display in defeat to Arsenal

Norwich City Under-18s put in an improved second half display in a 3-0 home loss to Arsenal.

The young Canaries, who have yet to win a game in the Under-18 Premier League South this season, found themselves behind early on and trailing 2-0 at the break.

However, they came out after the interval and created numerous chances to get back into the match before Khayon Edwards, who had netted the two first half goals, completed his hat-trick against the run of play.

The game started with Marcelo Flores sending an early warning shot for the visitors before Edwards swept home a cross from the right to put the Gunners in front after eight minutes.

The tall striker then added his second seven minutes later as he latched onto a good through pass to then take the ball around Norwich Reece Trueman and side foot home.

He was at it again on 24 minutes minute ghosting onto pass on the left side of the penalty area, but this time the Norwich shot stopper stood tall and blocked his effort well.

It took until the 45 minutes for Norwich to threaten the Arsenal goal but Osman Foyo was unfortunate to see his well struck free kick go just wide.

After the break it was a different story though. Flores did fire another early warning shot, but after that Norwich went on the attack. First Ken Aboh did well to lay a ball off to Joe Duffy just inside the area and he fired inches wide of Remy Mitchell’s right hand post. Then Aboh blazed over from eight yards out after a ball had ricocheted into his path.

Then with 21 minutes remaining Ola Okeowo caught a volley sweetly from the corner of the penalty area only to see his effort flash narrowly wide.

So it was against the run of play when Arsenal extended their lead. It came from a good move down the right and a low cross into the box that gave Edwards the simplest of task of side footing the ball home from a yard out.

That goal somewhat broke the home side's resistance and made sure of the points for Arsenal, but in the 15 minutes that remained Norwich kept pushing forward and kept battling to try and find a goal that their second half performance merited.

Norwich City: Trueman; Trialist, Shipley, Hills (C); Okeowo, Brooke, Duffy, Foyo, Renecke (Jambang, 82); Matos (Reindorf, 75), Adoh. Subs not used: St Paul, Roberts Bookings: Shipley (36), Duffy (64), Hills (87)

Arsenal: Mitchell; Ibrahmin, Quamina, Robinson, Foran (C); Sweet, Sagoe Junior, Cozier-Duberry, Bandeira; Flores, Edwards (Gower, 87) Subs not used: Kovacecic, Rosiak. Bookings: Quimina (45), Flores (54), Foran (84) Goals: Edwards (8, 15, 74)