Canaries gunning for second place

Norwich City Ladies have risen to fourth in the SE Combination table after doing a quick double over Braintree.

And with Enfield and Lewes both losing, the Canaries are only two points away from second place - with a game in hand.

City will want to maintain the momentum at home to Old Actonians this weekend, Plantation Park, Blofield, 2pm kick-off.

Norwich travelled to Essex on Sunday with the usual midfield trio all out due to injuries and had to dig deep and play players out of their usual positions.

Braintree are a side fighting for their lives in the league and were in no mood to let City repeat their 5-0 victory from the previous weekend. In fact, they took the lead early on in the first half.

A shell-shocked City were all over the place and whilst they pushed on for the equalizer, they found the Braintree keeper in good form. Much to City’s relief, Chelsea Garrett sent them into half-time equal, netting after a one-on-one with the keeper.

Half-time gave the opportunity to discuss what wasn’t quite going right, and City returned for the second half determined to take control of the game. Further goals came through Paige Shorten and Garrett completed her hat-trick.

Co-manager Emma Fletcher said: “We started a little bit all over the place. Players were asked to play out of position and it took us a while to settle. Full credit to the ladies - after the break they came out a different side.”

Asked about the team’s injuries, she added: “it’s really testing our resources at the moment, you can usually get away with one or maybe two injuries in one position but having three out at the same time has caused us to re-shuffle.”

Fletcher was very complementary of their opposition last Sunday: “They remind me a bit of us when we first merged, a side that play good football. I don’t think sides realize how tough mentally and physically this league is and you probably don’t get time to adapt. I hope they survive as they have the backing and framework behind them.”