Norwich City Reserves 3, Great Yarmouth Town 0THIS friendly on Monday night reflected great credit on the Bloaters who held their illustrious opponents for an hour before conceding.

Norwich City Reserves 3, Great Yarmouth Town 0

THIS friendly on Monday night reflected great credit on the Bloaters who held their illustrious opponents for an hour before conceding.

“It was a great evening for the lads,” said boss Kevin Cruickshank, while Norwich's Bryan Gunn generously conceded his team's greater fitness was the telling factor: “Yarmouth gave us a great game and made it a good workout for us; they were very resilient.”

Yarmouth tantalised their supporters with their few attacks. Jake Reed had the first effort of the game after just two minutes with a header from a Scott Woodcock cross but was called offside. A similar decision halted their next promising move, again involving Reed and Woodcock. Hilton gained many plaudits for his efforts in the Yarmouth goal. A Woodcock 40-yarder was not too far off target.

Cruickshank brought on four substitutes at half-time and Yarmouth had Norwich sub keeper Declan Rudd clawing down a high ball from Chris Squire. Adey Ager had to go off for treatment to a bloodied mouth but resumed to play an important role in the very next attack. Receiving a fine pass from Mark Thompson down the left, he took the ball on and passed inside to Roach, whose shot drifted wide.

Yarmouth brought on their final substitute, young Leighton Crux. Many of the youth teamers from both sides knew each other from pre-season friendlies in the past two summers. Dominic Smith must have enjoyed his tussles with Simon Lappin (33 first team games) who he twice left sprawling.

Norwich Reserve manager Ian Crook was delighted with the workout for his team. “Full credit to Yarmouth,” he said. “They gave it a good go, they put their bodies on the line and I thought the keeper was excellent.”

Norwich: Stuart Nelson, Korey Smith, Robert Eagle, Adrian Leijer, Dario Dumic, Matty Pattison, Simon Lappin, Tom Adeyemi, Kris Renton, Luke Daley, David Carney. Subs: Cody MacDonald, Declan Rudd, Johnbull Omeregie, Tyree Clarke, David Stephens, Nick Davey, Richard Brindley (all used).

Bloaters: Michael Hilton, Johnathan Watt, Olly Savage, Gareth Palmer, Adrian Ager, Alan Darby, Dominic Smith, Adam Sewell, Stewart Roach, Jake Reed, Scott Woodcock. Subs: Toby Gorbould, Chris Squire, Mark Thompson, Darren Patterson, Leighton Crux, Elliot Pride (all used).