Norwich 1 United 1: de Laet show earns depleted Reds a deserved draw

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July 25th 2009, 3pm
Carrow Road, Norwich

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Norwich City	1-1	Manchester United XI

Adeyemi 21	–	de Laet 85
–	–	Hewson missed pen 35

 
A Ritchie de Laet equaliser five minutes from time handed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side a deserved share of the spoils at Carrow Road this afternoon, as a somewhat makeshift United XI bounced back from an early Norwich goal and a first-half penalty miss to outplay their League One opposition in the second forty-five minutes.

Canaries midfielder Tom Adeyemi gave the home side just reward for an impressive first twenty minutes with a great strike from outside the area, and debutant goalkeeper Ben Alnwick – a loan signing from Tottenham – gave Bryan Gunn’s team another boost when he plunged to his left to turn away Sam Hewson’s spot-kick ten minutes before the break. The Reds adjusted better to the inevitable second-half changes however, and went close on a number of occasions before the unlikely figure of de Laet got in behind the City backline to slot home a late leveller.

Pre-season programme takes shape; date set for LSC Final

2008/09 is done and dusted but, as is evermore the case in football these days, the start of the next campaign will soon be upon us, kicking off with the first pre-season fixtures in little over a month. While the first team will be touring Asia, taking part in the inaugural Audi Cup in Munich and entertaining Valencia at Old Trafford, the reserves and academy have their own itinerary fast taking shape.

Reds line up pre-season Canaries clash

As the reserves prepare for their season-closing Manchester Senior Cup final at the Reebok Stadium tomorrow night, the first part of their pre-season itinerary for 2009/10 has been revealed – a trip to face Norwich City.

Petrucci off the mark as U18’s edge out Norwich (inc. highlights)

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United U18	2-0	Norwich City U18

Petrucci 51	–	–
James 77	–	–

 

The U18’s continued their promising start to the new campaign at Carrington this morning, with a first Academy goal for Davide Petrucci and a decisive Matty James strike securing all three points for the young Reds from a close, hard-fought encounter with their Norwich City counterparts.

U18’s set for Canaries clash at Carrington

United’s Academy side entertain their Norwich City counterparts at Carrington tomorrow morning in their first home game of the new season.

2008/09 U18 fixtures are out

With the new season rapidly approaching (I will have a full review of last season up at some point over the next week, promise), the fixture list for United’s academy side has been released on manutd.com. The U18’s will kick off the new campaign with a rare trip to the capital to face West Ham on August 23rd, before welcoming Norwich City to Carrington a week later for the first home fixture.

As always, the games you typically look for as a United fan are those against City and Liverpool. The scousers come to Carrington in late October before successive December matchdays see United entertain City and then travel to Liverpool’s Melwood training ground, whilst the trip to Platt Lane to face our neighbours will see no love lost on Valentines Day.

The U18’s will be looking to improve upon their third-placed finish in Group C last season, and will be particularly hoping to go much further in the FA Youth Cup after a humiliating early exit in 07/08. Manager Paul McGuinness told manutd.com – “We had a stop-start season, but all the players will come back older and wiser. You learn from experience, good or bad. There were good experiences, but we also lost three games by five goals. That shouldn’t happen to our teams.”

You can find the full fixture list here.