Norwich City 0, Dereham Men's 1st XI 3

Dereham took a massive stride towards securing their future in East League Premier A on Saturday, 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 three times this season, confidence within the Dereham camp was high. 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 coolly slotted home.

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 keeper, who made a smart save.

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.

City started the second half strongly, but once again were unable to make their possession count.

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.

Hunter rounded off the victory with another drag flick, to make his personal tally seven in his last three games.