ADAM IDAH’S SENIOR debut for Norwich City didn’t quite go to plan last night.
Having impressed as a prolific striker for the Canaries’ reserves, the 18-year-old was handed his first competitive start for their EFL Cup tie against Crawley Town with the in-form Teemu Pukki rested and recent signing Josip Drmic injured.
However, the Premier League side lost 1-0 to their League Two opponents — Idah unfortunately deflecting Beryly Lubala’s strike into his own net for the winning goal.
The Ireland U21 international had a couple of chances at the other end but was unable to get off the mark on a disappointing evening.
However, Norwich boss Daniel Farke believes the Cork native will learn from the experience and spoke optimistically about his young players.
“Several lads needed minutes and it is quite important they they got some,” Farke said afterwards. “I wish that we had won the game but it was a disappointing evening.
“We played without Teemu Pukki and Josip Drmic and Adam Idah got 90 minutes, and it was important that he got his first competitive game for Norwich under his belt.
We can’t speak about trusting our young lads and then we bring them on the pitch and complain if it’s an unlucky result. Adam is the most disappointed lad in the dressing room because he missed three or four big chances and more or less scored an own goal.
“It’s not up to me to punish a player, we have to back them if you want to develop young lads. You have to accept that there are evenings like this. They need to have this experience and they will learn from it.”
The teenager is expected to be named in Stephen Kenny’s squad this afternoon ahead of Ireland’s upcoming U21 European Championships qualifiers against Armenia and Sweden.
