Under-18s soundly beaten by Aston Villa

The young Canaries saw four changes to the side that lost 3-0 to Southampton on the opening day of the 2020/2021 season, with Jayden St. Paul, Ayyuba Jambang, Osman Foyo and Michael Reindorf coming into the starting eleven.

Aston Villa got the game off to their ideal start just eight minutes into action, Kahrel Reddin getting himself on the end of a loose ball over the top to half volley past St. Paul for the opener.

Another eight minutes later and Villa would double their lead when Taylor-Jay Hart got his head on a corner to nod into the bottom corner, making it 2-0 just after the 15-minute mark.

It looked destined to be 3-0 two minutes after finding the back of the net for a second time when the Villans came knocking, but first-year scholar Ayyuba Jambang did excellently to get back and deny the hosts with his goal-line clearance.

In an early period of dominance, that third goal wouldn’t have to wait for long as Villa worked their way past the young Canaries, leaving Dewain Sewell with a textbook finish from the centre of the box.

Rounding off their half comfortably, the Villans would go on to find another three goals inside ten minutes, Sewell and Hart both finding their brace with tidy finishes inside the box, while Ajani Burchall found his first of the afternoon after stealing the ball from the City backline and tucking it past St. Paul.

Coming out for the second half, City’s energy and intent was unharmed as they looked to get back into the game.

Unfortunately for the Canaries, the Villans would go on to add another to their tally after Burchall capitalised on their counter-attack, calmly finishing when one-on-one with St. Paul.

Striker Ken Aboh came close to pulling one back for City as he turned and shot inside the 18-yard box, but it was saved by Oliwier Zych ten minutes into the second half.

After a 20-minute period of being held goalless, Villa soon came back with Aaron O’Reilly’s header inside the City box, seeing the score to eight.

Pushing on minutes later, Sewell would find his third for his hat-trick with a curling effort off-the-post and in.

Heading into the last ten minutes of the afternoon, Burchall made it ten for the visitors after tucking away a defensive error from City.

Norwich City starting XI: St. Paul, Okeowo, Alidor-Hamilton, Shipley, Jambang (McCabe, 76), Duffy, Brooke (c), Foyo, Reindorf, Aboh, Thorn (Coker, 71)
Subs not used: Coker, Trueman, Trialist, McCabe
Goals: N/A
Bookings: N/A

Aston Villa starting XI: Zych, Barber, Ealing, Feeney (Munroe, 60), A. O’Reilly, McBride, Burchall, Hart, Sewell, T. O’Reilly, Reddin (Apoca, 60)
Subs not used: Lewis, Pierre, Moore
Goals: Reddin (8), Hart (16, 34), Sewell (28, 31, 78) Burchall (38, 50, 83), O'Reilly (75)
Bookings: N/A