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Norwich City finally went under to three second half goals, conceded to a strong Crystal Palace side that could have embarrassed the visitors even more but for poor finishing. Norwich fielded a mixed Academy eleven, with Danny Kelly captaining the side and reverting to the heart of the defence, alongside Dario Dumic. Coskun Ekim, who has a Cypriot background, was making his second start for Norwich and was very mobile in midfield, playing with determination. The early stages of this match at Copers Cope Road found both teams unable to get the upper hand, although Norwich defended well enough. Norwich on twenty two minutes almost created an opening when Oakley did well on the left side of the Crystal Palace penalty area, but the ball was scrambled clear. On twenty seven minutes a through ball picked out Sekjja with a clear run on goal, but Steer appeared to get something on the ball to divert away for a corner. Norwich on thirty one minutes got forward and Nwagau shot wide from distance. The best move from Norwich came as Ekim bypassed three opponents, before Oakley took the ball away from his stride but blasted over the crossbar. Just seven minutes into the second half, Crystal Palace opened the scoring when Randall was allowed space inside the penalty area to shoot pass Steer. On seventy one minutes Pinney was sent through on goal, but again the striker wasted a golden opportunity to add to the tally. Again Norwich got caught cold just inside there own penalty area and Randall advanced before squaring the ball for Pinney to net. Norwich almost reduced half the deficit when JohnBull Oswegie collected the ball before shooting, his shot took a wicked deflection off Nnmami past Mann with the ball rebounding from a post. In the last minute of normal time Sekjja finally rounded off the scoring to seal the points for Crystal Palace. City Line-Up: Steer, Brindley (Gordon 72), A.Stephens, Ekim, Dumic, D.Kelly, Sessenon, Ball (Osemwegie 61), Nwaogu (Drmola 46), Roberts, Oakley. ´ Subs not used: Matthews, S.Kelly. Top Canary: Coskun Ekim |
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Report courtesy of Rob Maynard. |