CITY boss Glenn Roeder spoke to the media this morning from the Norwich City training facility south of Gothenburg about how important the pre-season tour of Sweden was for his squad of players.

The Canaries are now over halfway through the tour, winning their opening game 2-1 against Ahlafors IF, and the City boss explained how the players were benefiting both on and off the pitch from their time in Scandinavia.

"It's helping because we are together the whole time which is important and the players can concentrate on their football and their fitness and the new ones can get to know the players who were here last year," said Roeder.

"Obviously if you are at Colney everyday there's that break every night when you go home and I don't think you can be fully rested when you are back home for obvious reasons, there's always something around the house to do or you're always being asked to do something, so this break we have had in Devon and the one out here in Sweden have been very helpful.

"First of all it's an opportunity to gain more match practice and more match fitness. No matter how much running you do in fitness work there is nothing better you can do in preparing yourself for match fitness than playing in games."

The Canaries will play their second and final game of the pre-season tour against Falkenbergs FF on Tuesday night, and the Norwich manager is expecting his players will be prepared for a more difficult 90 minutes than in the win against Ahlafors last Saturday.

"It's going to be a much tougher game, they are a division higher Falkenbergs. I was speaking to Roy Hodgson last week and he knows the place well and said you'll enjoy going there. Obviously it will push us on that bit further by the end of the game."

Both of City's centre backs took knocks during Saturday's game. Jason Shackell was substituted in the second half after struggling from a heavy challenge he sustained in the opening 45 minutes and was followed by Gary Doherty who was sythed down just before Jamie Cureton scored the winner. The City boss was hopeful that the injuries were not overly serious.

"I think they will both struggle to make the game on Tuesday night, but I don't think either of them are seriously hurt thankfully, both should be fit for the Tottenham game a week today."

Glenn Roeder and his squad are continuing the hunt for new players during their time in Sweden as he looks to strengthen the squad ahead of the start to the 08-09 campaign. As the Colney staff waits for new arrivals, it has allowed a number of younger City players to feature and benefit from the pre-season tour and Glenn explained that it was good for their development.

"We have a few young lads that when the squad is complete, say in a couple of weeks time when more signings have come in, there are lads here who aren't really going to feature this year," he said.

"They might have opportunities to train with us during the season but as I keep telling them they are fortunate young lads to be here because the squad is so small and obviously we need a certain number of players with us to travel. They are gaining invaluable experience and it is an opportunity for them and one or two of them have caught my eye, especially a couple of the lads who played at Gorleston that haven't travelled with us, first year scholars did particularly well and I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress this season."

There are now less than three weeks until the Canaries will walk out of the tunnel at the Ricoh Arena to face Coventry in the opening fixture of the season. Asked whether he had thought about that game yet the Norwich City manager explained that his mind was currently on other matters.

"I think my time is full at the moment trying to get new players in and obviously being at all the practices, the three sessions we have everyday I've not really had time to think about the game at Coventry in three weeks time but for sure it will come around quickly and we need to make sure that we are ready for it both in our preparation and in the number of players we will have in our squad to attack this coming season."