Women's report | Norwich City 4-0 Luton Town

Norwich City Women took three points away from their first Carrow Road fixture of the season as they beat Luton Town Ladies 4-0 in Division One South East.

Norwich City Women took three points away from their first Carrow Road fixture of the season as they beat Luton Town Ladies 4-0 in Division One South East.

Andy Cook made three changes to this side that lost to Fulham in the last league outing, Hope Strauss, Ellie Smith and Eloise Hall all earning their first league starts.

City opened the game with plenty of possession and very much on the front foot.

It was almost a perfect start for the Canaries as they had two early opportunities to go in front, once from Freya Symonds with a low shot and the other from Grace Riglar heading high.

Millie Daviss then dragged a shot wide after a brilliant interception from Evie Williams deep in the Luton half.

A lovely strike from Natasha Snelling forced Nicola Melling to punch behind the effort for a City corner. Norwich then opened the scoring with 12 minutes played from the resulting set-piece.

Symonds' corner eventually found Williams who was able to slot the ball to Kennard, the winger poking home with her first touch.

City stopper Holly Mears got her first real involvement of the game with 28 minutes played, a Luton cross floating her way and making for a routine catch.

The lead was then doubled after a low free-kick from Williams was dummied by Riglar, taking a slight deflection off a Luton defender to find the back of the net.

The second half opened with Luton on the front foot, a looping effort from Emily Wilson landing on the roof of Mears' net.

In a quieter second 45 minutes for the Canaries, Kennard had a chance to get her second, cutting inside to seek the near top corner from the edge of the box but her effort crashed back off the crossbar.

In a one-on-one with Melling, Ellie Smith fired a powerful effort goalward but the Luton 'keeper stood strong to block.

A fantastic press from Eloise Hall, Snelling and Kennard earned City their third, Symonds eventually collecting the lose ball and finding the bottom right corner.

Another six minutes played and Norwich had a fourth through Ellie Smith.

More high pressing allowed Smith to make a sliding run to block a Luton clearance, the ball deflected over Melling and looped into the back of the net.

A long-distance effort from Eloise King was only narrowly too high of the target in injury time.

City are next in action on Sunday, September 21, when they travel to London Bees at The Hive.

Norwich City: Mears; Daviss, Riglar (C) (Flye 76), Strauss, Williams; King, Smith, Symonds (Hailes 76); Hall (Moore 76), Kennard (Densley 76), Snelling (Cook 76).

Unused subs: Bishop, Booty.

Goals: Kennard (12), Williams (35), Symonds (67), Smith (73)

Luton Town: Melling; Swares (C) (Fryer 85), Fensome, Mulvaney, Wilson (Gayle 90), Buttigieg, Milliken (Blacksley 79), Farmer (Bowman 79), Leighton, Lewis, Beufort.

Unused subs: Hudson, Maddix, Sargent.

HT: 2-0

FT: 4-0

Venue: Carrow Road

Referee: Lola Pollard

Attendance: 3,251