Dereham Men 4, Norwich City 2

HOCKEY: Dereham avenged their only defeat of the season in a top-of-the table derby at Greenfields on Saturday with a convincing victory.

They dominated most of the game, but Norwich took the lead following a mix-up from a sideline which allowed their forward to nip in and walk the ball into an empty net.

This spurred Dereham into waves of attacks and it was only a matter of time before Dereham drew level. Man-of-the-match Ed Turner was too skilful for a slow Norwich defence, and he won a short corner which Sam Plater converted with a drag-flick low to the keeper's left.

Plater doubled the lead shortly afterwards with another low drag-flick for Dereham to go into the break one goal in the lead - but it could have been many more. The Dereham defence were only troubled by their own mistakes.

The theme continued in the second half. City were unable to find an answer to Turner's runs as he proved too hot to handle.

Dereham added a third early in the half which effectively killed the tie off as a contest. Michael Timm beat a couple of City defenders before unleashing a reverse-stick shot which left the City keeper dumbfounded.

Sam Plater was up against his teacher from Norwich High School, and the pupil handed out a lesson of his own.

As Plater broke through, he found himself one-on-one with the keeper and looked certain to complete his hat-trick before he was tripped from behind, which resulted in a penalty-flick.

The City defender was lucky to avoid any further action. Michael Timm stepped up and buried the flick.

Dereham pushed for more goals but were unable to add to their lead and Norwich got another goal late on with a deflected shot.

Dereham took the points at a canter, and opened up an advantage at the top of Premier B.