Future in the Pontins League for City Reserves
Norwich City reserve team's entry into the Football Combination for the 2006-07 season has been rubber-stamped.The Canaries are one of 10 teams who will play in the Eastern Division of the Pontins Holiday Combination League along with the likes of Ipswich, Colchester, Luton and Milton Keynes.
Norwich City reserve team's entry into the Football Combination for the 2006-07 season has been rubber-stamped.
The Canaries are one of 10 teams who will play in the Eastern Division of the Pontins Holiday Combination League along with the likes of Ipswich, Colchester, Luton and Milton Keynes.
It represents a massive step down in terms of quality from the Barclays Premiership Reserve League, which saw such top-flight luminaries as Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham visit Carrow Road.
As proposed earlier this year, clubs outside the Premiership at the end of the season - including Norwich, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Coventry - have all been kicked out of the Premiership Reserve League, whose line-up will now mirror the Premiership itself season by season.
Club secretary Kevan Platt declared: “It clearly represents a drop in quality but it is the next best possible option.
”The reserves will play 18 league matches and we are still considering whether to enter the league cup competition. On top of that we are still able to arrange matches on an ad hoc basis.”
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He added: “Norwich City are extremely committed to reserve team football, both as the best possible stepping stone for bringing young players through and testing themselves in a more rugged environment, and as a means of encouraging young people into Carrow Road through our Soccer PM activities at a time when space at first team matches is limited.
“It does mean that we are again on the outside looking in but we still feel we can offer an exciting night's football.”
The full list of clubs in the league: Colchester, Ipswich, Leyton Orient, Luton, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Southend and Stevenage Borough.