Spurs 3-1 Norwich U18s - John's verdict

John McDermott was pleased with the way our Under-18s dealt with the elements in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Norwich.

Second half goals from Cy Goddard, Emmanuel Sonupe and Anthony Georgiou saw us overturn a 1-0 deficit to claim three points in the Barclays Under-18 Premier League.

Norwich had taken the lead through Lewis Byrne-Hewitt right at the end of a difficult first period for both sides – in which the blustery conditions made free-flowing football difficult to produce.

“It was quite a strong wind and in the first half we played into it,” reflected John, our Academy Manager. “I thought we played quite well so I was a little bit disappointed that we conceded right at the end of the half as I thought we were quite resilient and both teams tried to play in what was undoubtedly very difficult conditions.

“In the second half I was really pleased with Joe Muscatt who was making his debut. I thought he made a really good assist for Cy Goddard and Emmanuel Sonupe made a difference when he came on.

“The match was played in very tough windy conditions which is always a leveller, but overall I’m quite pleased that some of the boys have got 90 minutes under their belts.”

In terms of the starting 11, only centre-half Cameron Carter-Vickers retained his place from the side that lost to Fulham in the FA Youth Cup less than 48 hours earlier, as John made sweeping personnel changes.

And he hinted that the rotation policy is likely to continue as we enter another busy week of fixtures.

“There’s a game Wednesday (away to Reading in Barclays Under-18 Premier League) and then there’s another game on Saturday (away to Fulham) so we’re just trying to shuffle the pack a little bit and we’ve picked three teams already with those games in mind,” John added.