The Canaries lost just their second league match of the season on Sunday afternoon after defeat to a defensively resilient and clinical counter-attacking London Seaward side in East London in the FAWNL Division One South East.
Seaward looked to set the tone early on as they attacked from the off in the opening minutes, but the Canaries were arguably the superior side for the vast majority of the first half.
Alice Parker enjoyed the freedom of the pitch on the day, switching diagonal passes to Freya Symonds, who was tormenting the left-hand side of the Seaward defence during the opening period.
The first of many Symonds efforts came in the 13th minute. Ellie Smith picked up the ball deep inside her own half and turned defence into attack in the blink of an eye, before finding Symonds, who was denied by a strong hand from Garwood.
Just as Norwich had found their rhythm and groove, they found themselves behind. Johnston was unlucky as her last-ditch effort ricocheted right into the path of Lanza, who coolly tucked away in the 16th minute.
It was then right back to waves of yellow and green with Parker, Symonds, Stanley and Flye all enjoying vast amounts of space down the flanks, but to no avail in terms of the final product.
This gave Norwich some warranted optimism heading in for the interval, but this optimism was swiftly deflated just minutes into the second half.
Seaward doubled their lead almost instantly with a direct and clinical attack in the 47th minute of the game through Thomas-Arayo.
Order of business resumed, and City dominated the ball, desperate to respond.
The pressure caused some cracks in the Seaward defence, who resorted to heavy challenges on the edge of the area.
Parker lined up for three free-kicks in the space of four minutes. The first of these free-kicks nearly left a dent in the Seaward crossbar, to the relief of the home side and their goalkeeper, who was well beaten – not something that could often be said throughout the afternoon.
The day can only be described as an exhibition of Norwich chances met with sucker punch after sucker punch from the hosts, and unfortunately, the knockout blow came in the 70th minute.
Three Seaward players broke away and pin-balled the ball around before Thomas-Arayo side-footed her second and Seaward’s third into the bottom left corner.
Alicia Garwood, who put in a valiant performance throughout the match, continued to protect her clean sheet by denying a number of goal-scoring opportunities in the late stages.
Garwood was, however, spared some late blushes by the referee as a Megan Todd cross appeared to have been caught behind the goal line in the last minute of the game but neither linesman nor the referee had a clear view of the alleged goal.
Misfortunes aside, the more clinical side emerged victorious come the final whistle, subsequently pulling Norwich down the table and into the chasing pack.
Norwich will have the chance to make amends at The Nest on Sunday, February 5, as they host QPR, a side they beat 2-0 earlier this season.
Norwich City: Harper, Johnston, Parker (Cook 77), Larkins (Croft 65), Smith (Gooding 88), Snelling, Stanley (Todd 65), Knights, Symonds, Flye, Morran
Subs not used: Russell
London Seaward: Garwood, Cockerill, Butler-Williams, Long (Zimmerer 65), Lanza, Cannon, Dunning, Thomas-Arayo, Bracelli, Solow, Simes (Marchant 80)
Subs not used: Anderson, Bradley, Davies
HT: 1-0
FT: 3-0