Lewes 5, Norwich 0

Norwich City Ladies travelled to Lewes and suffered their first SE Combination defeat of the season.

City have an important game on Sunday, facing MK Dons away who are one place above them in the table.

They will be determined to bury the ghosts of Halloween and keep themselves in the running for the league.

Last Sunday, following the longest journey of the season so far City, like the male counterparts, found themselves 2-0 down after just 15 minutes.

Things didn’t get better when in-form goal scorer Chelsea Garrett had to be substituted shortly after to add to what was looking like to be a Norwich Halloween horror show.

The usual passing and composure from the young City side was missing and with Lewes sensing this they capitalised with two further goals and headed into half-time 4-0 up.

The second half started much like the first and whilst City were playing with more determination they couldn’t carve any real clear-cut opportunities other than Kirstie Kindred’s effort that came off the Lewes crossbar and Paige Shorten’s long-range effort that went agonisingly wide of the left post.

As City pushed forward there was always going to be gaps at the back and once again Lewes punished them scoring their fifth of the game.

City joint manager Emma Fletcher said: “We are all bitterly disappointed, to come all this way and not play like we have been recently is very frustrating.

“Whilst Lewes had made several changes to when we played them at home, we should have given a better account ourselves and when you go 2-0 down so early you really cause yourself problems.”