Norwich City Ladies were held to a 2-2 draw by visiting Denham United Ladies in their first home game of the season in the rebranded FA Women's National League.
Playing at a soggy Plantation Park, there were a couple of changes to the team which had lost 5-1 at Enfield in their first Division one South-East game.
From the outset, Norwich put Denham under pressure with a fast-paced start with plenty of possession and early opportunities on goal.
However, the visitors defended well and a lapse of concentration in the Norwich midfield gifted them an opportunity against the run of play, a long distance strike from Annie Hewitt looping over City goalkeeper Hope Armstrong, with 12 minutes played.
City's response came less than two minutes later, as Chelsea Garrett met a ball played across goal from Aimee Durrant, connected with it well and drove it low with pace past Gracie Perkis in the Denham goal.
With Norwich maintaining momentum and a high tempo dominating play, Denham make a midfield change, bringing Jessica Stickley on for Kodi Spencer, and managed to hang on for the rest of the half.
After the restart Norwich resumed control after their strong first half performance and with Denham having to soak up relentless pressure, another goal looked certain. Norwich's Jodie Drake thought she had put City ahead with a terrific strike on 65 minutes, only to be denied by the outstretched hand of Perkis.
Norwich upped the pace and a blistering run by Garrett saw her bag a second for the day on 79 minutes.
The priority for Norwich changed as they implemented a game management plan to protect the lead, but they conceded a late second goal – just as they had done in last season's home fixture.
Norwich will regard this as a valuable two points lost – next up is an FA Women's National League Cup trip to Coventry United Ladies on Sunday.
City: Armstrong, Parker, Robson (Goodfield 72), Diston, Parsons, Thacker, Durrant, Drake, Garrett, Daviss (Snelling 69), Love. Subs not used: McDonald, George, Young. Ref: P Roe. Att: 72
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