It turned out to be a Good Friday for the Norwich Academy Under-18s as they beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Colney on the first day of the holiday weekend. The team included George Francomb and Josh Dawkin who had earlier in the week been awarded professional contracts for next season. Ricky Martin’s side hadn’t won for three games but soon took control of the match against the Eagles. As early as the second minute a cross from Ryan Oakley caused consternation in the Palace area and the visitors were lucky not to concede an own-goal in the ensuing mayhem. Both Norwich wide men were seeing plenty of the ball in the early stages and Danny Kelly failed to beat the keeper after five minutes following a cross from Josh Dawkin from the left flank. A further Oakley cross minutes later caused more danger but both Kelly and Dawkin failed to connect as the ball came across the front of goal. City continued to dominate as the half wore on without making the break through. On the half-hour mark it turned into the Josh Dawkin show as he first beat his man on the left to shoot straight at the keeper and then beat two men before putting a dangerous ball into the middle which Richard Brindley failed to convert. Finally in the 39th minute Dawkin put City 1-0 up as he hit the target from 16 yards out. There was still time before the break for a Palace forward to break free but the shot went over the bar and Norwich took a deserved lead into half-time. Ricky Martin made two changes as the teams came out for the second half with Patrick Drmola replacing Richard Brindley who had picked up a knock and Theo Jones coming on for Taylor McKenzie. This caused a reshuffle in the line-up with Danny Kelly reverting to centre-back, Jones going to right-back and Johnbull Osemwegie moving up to midfield. The changes failed to put Norwich out of their stride and while they failed to create as many chances as in the first half, the Canaries were rarely troubled in the second-half as Palace often ran into offside positions beyond the well-marshalled Norwich defence. The Eagles did hit the bar on 51 minutes with a shot from outside the area but this was their only really dangerous effort with Remy Matthews comfortable in the City goal. On 78 minutes City decided the match and it was a combination of the two effective wide men with Ryan Oakley beating his man and providing a precise cross for Josh Dawkin to head home. All in all a good performance from Norwich who can now look forward to their next rearranged home game against Charlton on Wednesday 14th April (1.00 pm). City Line-Up: Matthews, Osemwegie, Gordon, Ball, McKenzie (46. Jones), Francomb, Oakley, Dobbs (75. S. Kelly), D. Kelly, Brindley (46. Drmola), Dawkin. Sub Not Used: Clarke. Palace Line-Up: Fitzsimmons, Kenlock, Parsons, Holness, Akuroka, Nnamani, Wynter, Goldsmith (67 Williams), Sekajja (72. Dennis), Williamson, Randall. Subs Not Used: Caprice, Gregory, Pringle. Norwich Man of the Match: Josh Dawkin.

Report and Photos courtesy of Paul Standley.