Norwich City Women’s captain Anna Larkins believes the club’s start to the season shows why “they should be in this league”.

The Canaries kept their fine start to the Division One South East campaign going with a 7-0 thrashing of Hounslow on Sunday at the Nest.

It’s a far cry from last season when they came so close to being relegated but Larkins said last season has been well and truly put behind them.

“We did the hard work last year to stay in the league, and now this year we’re proving why we should be in the league,” she said.

“I think we really strengthened the squad, but now we’ve been brought in-house, (with Norwich City FC) it feels like one club cohesion. We feel really supported. Every time we go on the pitch, we’re proud to wear the badge.”

Larkins praised her teammates for creating a good atmosphere at the club.

“I’ve played for Norwich for quite a while now, and it has never been such a close-knit group. We all just play for each other on the pitch, and that shows with our results.”

City bounced back from a 6-0 loss to Watford in the cup last week, and boss Shaun Howes says that his team didn’t perform too differently.

“I don’t think much was different. We go into every game with the same mentality, and I thought we played really well today.”

“We didn’t take the game for granted. Our work ethic and things we try to do as a team I think we’ve implemented and done really well.”

“I thought some of the football we played was brilliant.”

A trait of Howes’ Norwich side has been his two full-backs, Anna Larkins and Alice Parker, bombing up and down the pitch.

“They’re so willing to get in the game,” he said. “They’re very good at knowing when to do it and not to do it. We try and play with full-backs high and try and play out from the back.”

When pushed on whether he was happier with the clean sheet or the seven goals, the City boss answered: “Clean sheet. It’s nice to score seven goals but I am a defender at heart, and I love our work rate and that is six clean sheets in seven games!”