Norwich City 0 Dereham Men's 1st XI 3

Dereham took a massive stride towards securing their future in Prem A on Saturday, and at the same time piling further misery on bottom side and local rivals Norwich City with a solid 3-0 victory.

Having already got the better of the home side on the 3 previous occasions this season, confidence within the Dereham camp was high, although the side were wary of any complacency that may have crept in. The game started at a tremendous pace, and despite the surges forward from the home time, they found it difficult to beat the Dereham defence ably marshalled by Mark Hunter and Matt Stainthorpe. It was Dereham who opened the scoring within the first five minutes with their first attack on goal. Ric Timm broke free, and found himself one on one with the keeper, and cooly slotted home the ball into the bottom corner.

This spurred the home team on, but they were unable to break through the Dereham defence. Dereham once again broke free, and this time Michael Timm was unable to beat the out coming keeper, forcing a smart save. City had a lot of the possession, but were unable to do anything with it. Jeremy Elliot broke free for the home team, only to see his reverse stick shot sail past the far post. The home team started to build more pressure as the half wore on, but were limited to a couple of short corner opportunities, one of which drew a smart double save from Tom Vaughan in the Dereham goal denying Dereham old boy Bob Hammond first, and then smothering Jim Pallister's follow up shot. Dereham went in to the break one goal to the good.

City started the second half strongly, as it took Dereham a while to get settle down after the restart, but once again were unable to make any telling contributions with the possession. As the visitors settled, more free flowing hockey was produced, and the pressure began to mount on the home side. Will Edwards and both the Timms brothers came close, before Mark Hunter once again settled the nerves with a drag flick straight down the middle of the goal through the City goalkeeper's legs. Hunter almost doubled his tally shortly afterwards with another drag flick, but it hit the inside of the post and came back out, Matt Stainthorpe was unable to get anything on the rebound. City to their credit continued to try, but were unable to put any significant pressure on the Dereham goal, and were limited to a couple of short corner strikes which caused very little concern.

Hunter rounded off the victory with another drag flick, to make his personal tally seven in his last three games. Although technically they can be caught, it is highly unlikely, and Dereham are focusing on achieving their highest ever finish in Prem A, City on the other hand are languishing 5 points away from safety.