Harry Howell netted a last-minute winner for our men’s under-18s against Norwich City on Saturday to continue their unbeaten league run in 2023.
Having now won two and drawn two of their four league games this calendar year, Arthur Brammer’s team can start to look up the table as they sit just five points off second place Fulham.
Things didn’t start well at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre though as Elliot Myles’s wonderful through ball was latched onto by Michael Reindorf, who rounded Tommy Reid and fired home the opener after 14 minutes.
We responded 11 minutes later when Josh Duffus darted into the box and found Charlie Tasker at the back post to roll home an equaliser.
Uriah Djedje was shown his second yellow card of the game in the 83rd minute, with the Canaries ultimately paying for their shortage in personnel, as Joe Knight’s free-kick from the right found Howell in the middle, who headed emphatically into the top corner in the last minute of normal time.
Academy goalkeeping coach Owen Fisher said, “Harry Howell is an under-15, so it was great for him to score the winning goal. It’s probably the best we’ve played in the last few weeks – we showed really good identity, lots of control and were dominant. There were a couple of technical errors when defending, but in general we were worthy winners.
“From our perspective, the first half of the season was disjointed. We had a lot of injuries and were finishing games with a lot of youngsters on the pitch who are still learning how to deal with difficult periods during a game.
“The group are really close and they’ve been a lot more conscious about how they react to situations. There were moments earlier on in the season where players maybe didn’t realise how important it was to run an extra 15 yards to try and win the ball back and how much that can impact the game.
“The maturity in the group has come to the fore and I think that’s because of the opportunities they’ve had to play regularly. You get moments of quality because of the hard work they’re doing without the ball.
“We’ve gone behind in a few games this year and we’ve shown great character to get something from those games, but we can’t rely on ourselves to do that every time – that’s where we need to improve.”