Norwich Academy Boss Hails Squad’s Youth Cup Semi Final Triumph

Neil Adams was ecstatic with his side’s character, especially after going down to ten-men.

Norwich City have reached the FA Youth Cup Final where they will face Chelsea or Liverpool after winning a dramatic penalty shootout against Nottingham Forest.

The Canaries won the tie 5-4 in the shootout after the original match had finished 1-1 on aggregate.

They will now face one of the two favourites for the competition in the two-legged final.

William Britt saved Jack Blake’s spot kick to give the Carrow Road club plenty to celebrate last night.

Norwich City’s Under 18 manager Neil Adams told EDP24:“We practised on Monday but the lads are practising all the time.

“They love to take penalties and free kicks but we actually put on a structured session where they had to walk the 30 yards, they had to wait for a whistle and everyone was watching.

“Of course you can’t create the tension of 9,500 people but what you can do is be confident. That is something I did as a player.

“I made sure I took at least a 100 in the week so I was ready for the game. You saw that confidence. They stepped up and as for Reece Hall-Johnson and that spiralling run up I had no idea what he was doing but it worked.”

The penalty shootout could have been avoided if Norwich kept their first leg lead in the tie. Unfortunately for them they were pegged back by Jordan Palmer-Samuels goal in the 11th minute for Forest.

They weren’t helped by the dismissal of Cameron Norman sending them down to ten-men.

Adams said: “To go down to 10 men and for so long against a good Nottingham Forest side you have to have character in droves and we have.

“Not just the players on duty here but the squad. We had to dig in and it was tough.

“We’ll have a lot of sore limbs in the morning but they showed fantastic spirit to see it through and then to go and stick five out of five in on the penalties. You can’t ask for any more.”