Spurs youth boss points out quality which threatened Norwich last night

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Tottenham Hotspur’s Ugo Ehiogu says that the pace of his side threatened Norwich City in the under-21 fixture last night.

Ugo Ehiogu says that Tottenham Hotspur’s under-21 side’s pace threatened Norwich City last night.

Spurs lost the fixture 3-1, with the Canaries naming a strong team filled with experienced players, and Ehiogu was pleased with his side despite the result.

He believed that the speed of their attack in the second-half proved dangerous to Norwich.

“They brought the big guns out and it was always going to be a challenge for us,” he said to the club’s official site.

“Christian Maghoma made his debut aged 16 at centre-half up against the experience, firepower and know-how of someone like Gary Hooper and we finished the game with six scholars.

“It was a very young team up against 600 games of league experience in that Norwich team, a lot of know-how, a lot of game knowledge

“Could our players handle it? We knew their know-how was going to be tested.

“I thought they pulled us about a bit in the first half but the character we showed, the fight and the quality to get back into it was very pleasing.

“We spoke about a few things (at half-time) and they responded well.

“I thought at 2-1 there was a chance. We were fairly on top, fairly comfortable and we were carving out opportunities. We threatened and had pace that unsettled them.

“It’s just a shame that we had chances to keep possession for their third goal and we were undone by sloppy play.

“The result was disappointing but I was pleased with our players.

“We’ve four or five players away on international duty so we had to plug a few gaps but it gave players the opportunity to impress and they did that.”

Spurs named a youthful side for the clash, and in the end Norwich’s experience shone through with the side picking up a well deserved victory.

It was a good learning curve for Tottenham’s youngsters, though, who are regarded to be one of the finest teams at their age-group in the country.

Spurs’ academy is well-regarded and they will be hoping that this game has given them a taste for playing at a higher-level.

With 10,000 fans in the stadium and BT Sport broadcasting the game, there was a better atmosphere than experienced at many U21 matches and it seems that Ehiogu felt his side coped well with the challenge.