Norwich City team captain Sebastien Bassong plays 90 minutes in development league 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa

Sebastien Bassong moved a step closer to a first team return on Monday night after playing the full 90 minutes for Norwich City's Under-21 side in a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa's under-21s at Burton's Pirelli Stadium.

The big defender was the only senior player in action in the clash against Villa and although he ended up on the losing side it was very much a case of mission accomplished as far as the Canaries were concerned.

City's team captain, who missed pre-season while recovering from a knee injury, was participating in only his second game of the campaign, having featured for the Under-21s against Stoke at Colney last Monday, when he played for an hour. Having come through a whole match with no apparent problems he could now come into contention for a place in the squad for City's Barclays Premier League trip to Hull on Saturday.

Jamar Loza forced a good save from Villa's Bradley Watkins early on before Carlton Morris headed wide. But Villa got what proved to be the only goal on 40 minutes when Callum Robinson's cross was met by Jack Grealish. Former City youth product Jed Steer was not on duty for the Villains after being an unsued substitute in the first team's 3-1 Premier League win over Arsenal at the weekend. Steer rejected a new contract offer at Carrow Road over the summer to link up with former boss Paul Lambert. The youngster played in Villa's opening development league 3-0 loss at West Ham last week.

• Aston Villa: Watkins, Lyden, Webb, Donacien, Toner, Cowans, Grealish, Stieber (Abdo 69), Robinson, Johnson, Calder. Subs not used: Lewis, Grant (GK), O'Brien, Wildin.

• Goal: Grealish (40)

• Norwich City: Matthews; McNeil, Gafaiti, Bassong, Toffolo; McGeehan, Hall-Johnson; Jacob Murphy, Loza, Josh Murphy; Morris (Wyatt 85). Subs not used: Barker, Reading (GK), McFadden, Norman.