Norwich City Women’s head coach Shaun Howes hailed Sunday’s 2-1 victory away at Enfield as massive, as the team looks to avoid relegation from the FA National Women’s League Division One South East.
The Canaries went into the match five points behind their opponents in the table, who occupy ninth spot with the four spots below them facing relegation at the end of the campaign.
“It was a massive win,” said Shaun. “Had we lost that we would have been eight points off them but we are now two points behind them with a game in hand. We have got two really important home games coming up.
"We have got no game this weekend, but then we have got Kent United and Stevenage at home, who are both below us in the table, and then we play a lot of teams around us.
“Eight of our remaining 10 games are against teams that are around us so as long as we pick points up against them then we will be absolutely fine. The girls need to believe that, and we needed that win on Sunday to have that evidence and belief that we can do it.”
The game against Enfield started off with the home side putting Norwich City under pressure. However, having saw out that pressure, the team grew into the game and opened the scoring when Megan Todd picked the ball up on the edge of the area and lofted a shot over the Enfield keeper and into the back of the net.
The lead did not last long though as a long ball forward from Mollie Kmita was misjudged by the Canaries midfield, allowing Enfield striker Che Thomas to outpace the defence and take the ball around the keeper and fire home.
Norwich came out stronger in the second half through and took the lead with 20 minutes to go when substitute Freya Symonds won a free-kick and then fired it straight into the top corner from 25 yards out.
After that Norwich had a couple of chances to extend the lead but crucially limited Enfield Town to just one opportunity to get back into the match which they were not able to take.
“I would sum it up as a professional performance,” added Shaun. “I think we went there knowing that we needed to get a positive result. So, we set up in a way that made sure we were going to be hard to beat to start off with. We grew into the game, during the first half, and then second half we were the better team and deserved the win.
“One thing we have been working on with the girls is belief. I still believe that the girls can be a match for all of the teams in this league, it is just I am not sure if they believe that or not.
"We spoke at half-time and said this is what we are doing really well and that they have got to believe in themselves. We said that they have just got to have a bit more confidence on the ball and a bit more confidence when we are defending and we will be fine, and that is what they did.”