Norwich City Ladies faced Thorpe United Ladies FC in the Norfolk Women’s Senior County Cup semi-final.

Thorpe United Ladies play in the Eastern Region Division One North, the same league the Ladies Reserves side play in, and both sides had played each other the previous week with Thorpe taking all three points on that occasion.

Whilst there were two leagues between the Canaries and Thorpe, Norwich were not under-estimating the task that faced them, but one that they relished as they looked to seek a little revenge for their reserves but also as they wanted to progress to the final of the competition.

Having reached the competitions finals for the last three seasons, one more win would see them take a hat-trick of wins and this itself would be an incredible achievement.

City were given a knock-back even before a ball was kicked, with centre-half and captain Kate Parsons being ruled out for the remainder of the season having picked an injury up in a five-a-side competition a few days before.

With a crowd of 100, the atmosphere was set for a cup tie and both teams were up for the whistle.

The first half saw City put Thorpe under an immense amount of pressure without really causing an end product, Thorpe were looking to catch them on the break but with Laura Thacker and Anna Larkins in no determined mood to let anything get past them Holly Clarke was rarely troubled.

Up the other end Chelsea Garrett was causing the Thorpe back four all sorts of problems but they were also determined not to give her, or indeed any of the City players, too much time on the ball.

Finally City found the back of the net but not before Paige Shorten’s shot from 5 yards was some how blocked by an incredible save from the Thorpe keeper Kirstie Andrews, the ball was then cleared as far as Garrett who looked up and fired a low, hard shot towards the Thorpe goal and past the keeper.

Thorpe continued to thwart Norwich and the score remained 1-0 to City at half-time.

The second half saw a mixture of City stepping up a gear and Thorpe running out of steam, which isn’t hard to imagine, with the difference of standard in leagues in physically and through fitness and City added further goals through Shorten (penalty), Hayley Peverley, Danielle Manthorpe, Kirstie Kindred, Thacker and Garrett (twice to complete her hat-trick).

Thorpe did have a great chance but it dipped over Clarke in goal, only to their dismay hit the top of the net and out for a goal-kick.

Congratulations to Thorpe United for reaching the semi-final and also for their continued effort throughout the game and special mention to their keeper Andrews who can be proud of several saves that she made.

City will face Hethersett Ladies for the first time in this competition on Sunday April 17 at Dereham Town FC.

City joint manager Emma Fletcher said: “We are really pleased with today’s performance, the County Cup means a great deal to the players and the staff.

“It was important today that we got a game under our belt and Thorpe, to their credit, competed really well in the first half and deserved to go into half time only one goal down.

“The second half we knew that we needed to step up and the girls did just that and it was good to see some different goal scorers on the sheet.”