Norwich City Women endured a first league loss in the 2022/23 campaign, as Chesham Ladies pulled off a shock victory in the FAWNL Division One South East.
Goals from Rebecca Russell from the spot and Natasha Snelling were not enough to take away a point from a winless Chesham side at The Meadow stadium. on Sunday, October 16.
An uncharacteristically slow start from the Canaries saw Chesham pounce early, latching onto stray passes and heaping pressure onto the City defence early on.
Gemma Fraser was lively going forward, testing the hands of Bryony Williams on seven minutes. Moments later and Fraser would have been through on goal again had it not been for the pace of Ceri Flye, winning the foot race and clearing to safety.
On the 25-minute mark in a moment of magic, Emma Delves turned, got her head up and tried her luck from no less than 35-yards out, looping the ball over Williams for a merited Chesham opener.
City reacted. In the subsequent ten minutes, Norwich created a number of chances. First Anna Larkins found Megan Todd with a lovely cut-back, but the usually prolific winger couldn’t keep her effort down. Another City winger in a rich vein of form heading into the game was Kathryn Stanley, who saw one effort dragged narrowly wide, whilst another fired straight at the keeper before the intermission.
Stanley continued to find pockets of space in the second half, testing the keeper after a fine first touch on 55 minutes, but again Taylor was equal to it.
On the hour mark, it went from bad to worse as Chardonnay Johnston was dismissed for a foul inside the area, resulting in a penalty conversion by Emma Fraser to double the home side’s lead.
Six minutes later and the Canaries were given a lifeline. Flye was brought down in the area, gifting City a chance of their own from 12-yards. Half-time substitute Rebecca Russell stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way, calmly converting the spot kick to cut the deficit in half.
Despite pulling one back, Chesham simply wouldn’t let their heads drop. 15 minutes from time, Emma Fraser capitalised on a defensive error and restored the two-goal cushion for the home side.
Not long after, City responded strongly, and Norwich’s recent love affair with corner kicks paid dividends again as Natasha Snelling leapt and converted with 12 minutes left to play.
The Canaries’ fairly-tale comeback was just inches away from fruition on the 80-minute mark. Ellie Smith latched onto the end of a free kick to fire home but was dubiously denied by the referee’s assistant who raised the flag for offside, encapsulating the Norwich’s fortunes on the day as a whole.
The result sees Norwich City Women fall three points behind league-leaders, Hashtag United, heading into a double-header of cup matches in the two weekends to follow.
Norwich will next play on Sunday, October 23 in an FA Cup tie against Cambridge City at The Nest in a later-than-usual 3pm kick off.