Evergreens 4, Norwich City II 1

Evergreens came in to this match two places behind Norwich City in the league, but after winning their last six games in a row they were brimming with confidence.

They also welcomed back Tracy Topping after a long injury lay-off. Evergreens started strongly and pressured City from the first whistle. Their pressure paid off after just five minutes when Jess Shand recovered the ball and performed one of her magical solo runs, dancing through the City defence before lifting the ball past the keeper.

City then came back at Evergreens but organised defending by Sarah Pruden, Sam Turner and Topping kept them at bay. Quick thinking by Topping from a hit-out saw a long range pass find Shand and put her through one on one with the keeper, and she calmly slotted the ball home to double Evergreens’ lead.

Just before half-time, another long pass from defence fed the ball to Faye Hanson on the left wing, who battled through two tackles before crossing the ball for Shand to fire home and complete her sixth hat-trick of the season.

City came out all guns blazing in the second half and eventually found the back of the net to make it 3-1.

Ten minutes from time Harriet Segasby made a great run with the ball, seeing off several tackles from City before playing a piercing through ball to Shand to finish off an intelligent move.