Men’s East League: Norwich City turn on the style to stun high-flying Ipswich

Dereham goalkeeper Tom Franks cannot stop Bedford's late equaliser in Saturday's East Premier A meeting between the two teams at Greenfields Road. Picture: MICHAEL STAINTHORPE (Image: Archant)

City produced their best performance of the season so far to come away with all three points and deal Ipswich their first defeat of the year.

The home side broke the deadlock with about 10 minutes remaining in the first half thanks to a deflected shot from youth player Ali Husband.

City continued in the same manner after the break, working hard for each other and pressing high up the pitch.

They doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half when covering right back Bob Hammond picked up the ball outside the 25 and beat his man. His cross took a slight deflection as it found young Sam Paterson arriving at the far post to calmly control and finish.

Ipswich, who were briefly reduced to nine men, got a goal back eight minutes from time when they won a succession of short corners and the third was converted.

In the same section Harleston Magpies II lost 6-1 at Havering but Magpies' first team bounced back from their loss at St Albans by beating Blueharts 6-2 at home to stay top of Premier A.

Magpies conceded early before Ben Wright equalised after some good work from Toby Price.

Magpies flew into the second half, pressing high and creating many chances, and they eventually took the lead with Wright on the scoresheet again, dragging a short corner into the bottom left hand corner. He completed his hat-trick minutes later, dispatching another short corner.

Price then ended his eight game goal drought with a short corner into the top of the goal, which was shortly followed by another Wright penalty corner conversion.

Blueharts took advantage of a brief two man advantage to grab a second goal before Martin Fields converted from close range from an unselfish pass from man-of-the match Will Dunn.

Dereham reached the mid-point of their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Bedford in a closely-fought contest at Greenfields Road.

The Reds held a 1-0 lead for most of the match thanks to a first half goal from teenage striker James Lavers, but Bedford - who came into the game on a good run of form - netted a late penalty corner to earn a point.

An evenly-contested first half was dominated by outstanding defending from both teams before Lavers pounced on a mis-placed pass and found the net with a fortuitous backhand effort that looped over the onrushing keeper.

Dereham's defence was forced to soak up a long spells of pressure for much of the second period but clear-cut scoring chances remained few and far between until the visitors won a penalty corner with eight minutes remaining. Although Tom Franks dived in the right direction, the drag-flicked effort from the top of the circle had too much power and sailed into the top left corner.

'It is a shame that we couldn't hang on for all three points, but it was a great game and Bedford were definitely well worth a point,' said Dereham captain Andy Lawrence.

Pelicans drew 3-3 with Ipswich and East Suffolk in Division 1 while Norwich Dragons won 3-2 at Sudbury to make it two wins on the bounce in Division 2NE.

Dragons were 1-0 down at the break and quickly conceded a second - but they then staged a superb fightback to take all three points. Matt Knights rolled back the years with two fine goals and the winner came from a scramble, with Mark Flatman getting the final tough.

Norwich City II lost 2-1 at Ipswich II (Ben Plumb).

Pelicans II had a great 7-0 win at Norwich City III in Division 3NE (Ash Corbett 3, Sam Kent 2, Stuart Olley, Shaun Cuthill) while UEA maintained their unbeaten start with a 6-2 win at Ipswich Cranes. Merlin Smethhurst and Gabriel Inch both scored twice while Sam Coyne and Joe Peplinski were also on target.

Norwich Dragons IV moved seven points clear at the top of Division 5NE after beating Lowestoft Railway II 4-0 (Dan Ryan, Ricky Powley, Robbie Whiting 2).