Norwich City’s under-23 side started their Premier League International Cup campaign last night with a 2-0 win against Spanish side Valencia.
The rules of the competition stipulate that you can play three over-23 players, plus one goalkeeper, in the squad – with Norwich using this to full effect. Paul Jones (GK), Michael Turner, Sebastien Bassong and Graham Dorrans took up the overage slots.
However, Alex Pritchard, Jacob Murphy and Sergi Canos – first-team players under-23 – all played.
It was Pritchard who created the first goal for Norwich. He spun away from one defender in midfield before slotting the ball through to Carlton Morris, who clipped the ball over the goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
Norwich were then gifted a second when Antonio Latorre scored an own goal after Josh Murphy fired a cross into the six-yard box.
There were a number of impressive displays which has made picking a man of the match particularly difficult.
Regardless, I have to choose and I have gone for summer signing Paul Jones as my man of the match.
The 30-year-old shot-stopper signed on a free transfer from Portsmouth and was excellent throughout the night.
He made a number of sublime saves to deny Valencia – including one world-class stop to keep out a strike that was going straight into the bottom corner after a shot came through a crowd of players.
Norwich finally look to have a 3rd choice ‘keeper who isn’t there to make up the numbers…
