Norwich City emerged 4-1 victors over a competitive Sudbury side in front of a record attendance at The Nest on Sunday, April 21.
Despite the title implications being out of the Canaries’ hands, there was an eagerness to right the wrongs of the Sunday prior as Norwich faced an in-form and high-energy Sudbury side.
It was the visitors who got off to a much better start, winning a number of corners in the opening stages and testing the gloves of Sarah Quantrill from set-pieces.
It took Norwich until the 19th minute to manifest their first real opportunity in the form of an Ellie Smith volley, with the forward unimpressed by the outcome of her close-range effort.
Sudbury’s subsequent pressure continued and eventually prevailed five minutes later, Aliyat Lambe with the breakthrough. The visitors could have doubled their lead just moments later had it not been for a fine intervention by Ceri Flye to block a dangerous effort.
On the half-hour mark, Norwich finally got going. Smith’s usual antics caused headaches aplenty in the Sudbury midfield before finding former Sudbury winger Holly Kennard on the wing. She required no invitation to fire a first-time cross into the area for Natasha Snelling to gratefully slide home.
Few chances fell either way but for a tame effort into a comfortable Quantrill to draw a close to the first half.
The opening 15 minutes of the second half was equally stagnant, with neither side posing a great threat until the arrival of a City corner on the hour mark. Kennard, on her usual corner duties, whipped an inch-perfect delivery onto the head of Lauren Hailes, who emphatically headed the Canaries into the lead to turn the game around.
This would pry the floodgates open as City would score two in the seven minutes that followed. First, Flye latched onto the end of an Alice Parker cross to cushion the ball over Amelia Carter to make it three in the 67th minute, before Snelling would loop the ball over the ‘keeper for four in the 70th.
As the game fizzled out and benches emptied for substitutions, only the occasional temper flare from tired challenges would cause notable moments.
In the 96th minute of proceedings, City went agonisingly close to a fifth, first from a Smith free-kick and then the follow-up from Liv Cook, rattling the crossbar before the final whistle blew.
Norwich City: Quantrill, Parker (Pernet 76), Flye, Smith, Snelling, Larkins (Cook 88), Knights (Daviss 73), Hailes, Lawrence (Morran 59), Strauss, Kennard (Shaw 81)
Goals: Snelling (32,70), Hailes (63), Flye (67)
Bookings: Parker, Morran
AFC Sudbury: Carter, Harrison, Dodd, Bezant, Jouvenel, Lambe, Jeffry, Goodwin, Fisher, Frazzoni, Allen
Subs: Provan, Egan, Brame, Drake, Penny
Attendance: 538