Dominating yet defeated on debut

A last gasp free kick gave Norwich City three opening day points, despite us holding our own and dominating the match, even the Norwich manager conceded that we were “robbed of the win”.

It was almost the perfect start to the season for the Yellows, Kate Edwards’ ball into the box, from an early free kick, evaded Jess Allen marginally. We continued our early pressure. Holly Kennard, not for the last time this match, breezed past her defender and squared the ball to Kate who hit her shot well over. We then had our first golden chance of the match, Holly left her defender on the floor with great skill and strength and from a narrow angle could only hit her shot into the side netting. We continued our early domination as Jess Allen found herself through on goal with the ‘keeper rushing out, she looped the ball over the goalie's head... and it bounced... millimetres wide of the goal. So close! Then, on the 22nd minute, we were punished. Flye made a darting run forward and squared the ball and it found Kathryn Stanley, unmarked in the penalty area, and she smashed it into the back of the net- giving the visitors the lead very much against the run of play.

I mentioned Holly breezing past the defence multiple times, and right on half time she did it again, the defender had a good five- or ten-yard head start, and Holly caught up, left her in the dust and then won a corner. From the resulting corner Bez, who started as captain with Ronni on the bench, had an effort go inches away from nestling in the top corner. That was the last action of the half, and it was a case of more of the same in the second half for Sudbury...

Early on in the half, Amber Provan produced a super bit of defending to stop Norwich potentially going two up. With just over half an hour left to play, controversy struck, a delightful ball across the face of the goal by Sophie Jeffery meant that Holly had just the ‘keeper to beat but Quantrill produced a superb stop, but it wasn’t fully cleared, Holly tried to poke in, and everyone thought the ball was over the line, before the linesman, who was right in line with the goal, declared it hadn’t. DRAMA!

We made our first change; Kate, after a brilliant performance, was replaced by Evie Creaton! Within five minutes of Evie being on the pitch... she went and scored – it's just what she does! Holly slipped a perfect ball through to her, and Evie slotted past the goalie and into the bottom corner! Our first goal EVER in the National League, a piece of history!

Teigan McHale made a terrific block to deny the opposition, she went down for some time, before getting up and carrying on... playing for the badge! You love to see it!

With three minutes of normal time remaining, we were awarded a penalty; Evie Creaton stepped up, already having on goal to her name, but she hit it just over the bar and the scores stayed level. Millie Carter hadn’t had too much to do, but managed to keep herself focused so that deep into Stoppage Time she produced a brilliant stop to deny the Norwich attacker one on one, a truly magnificent save!

With the final whistle approaching, Norwich were awarded a dangerous free kick... Freya Symonds stood over it... and she placed it beautifully into the bottom corner, absolutely stunning. No goalkeeper would have had a chance at stopping it, inch perfect into the back of the net. There was no time for another goal back and we somehow didn’t even gain a point out of a brilliant performance in which you couldn’t tell who had just been promoted to this league.

Who better to have shown how good a team we are, than the RECORD crowd of 203 in attendance! Every single player put in a shift and all are a credit to the team, AFC Sudbury, and most importantly themselves. You never know, to show we can challenge at this level might just mean more than any three points.

UP THE YELLAS

By Isaac Mennie