East Men’s League

Premier A

CHELMSFORD moved back up the table with a convincing display at struggling Norwich City on Saturday. Despite failing to score in the first half, clinical finishing in the second reflected the dominance that Chelmsford enjoyed throughout the match.

As they have done in previous weeks, Chelmsford bossed the opening exchanges, but couldn’t make the breakthrough from a number of short corners and open play chances. As the half progressed, Norwich threatened to score from a number of sharp counter attacks, and were given a golden opportunity to take the lead when the visitors were temporarily reduced to 10 men after Tom Fanger’s late tackle abruptly halted a Norwich attack. However, Chelmsford’s defence stood firm going into the break with the game still goalless.

Into the second half, and with Chelmsford back up to 11 players, they soon opened the scoring when Adam Hunter guided the ball home from an early short corner. With their tails up, Chelmsford enforced their superiority when Fanger won a penalty stroke which Harry Rayner comfortably despatched into the corner of the net.

Just minutes later, Rayner repeated the trick with another penalty after Liam Radley was fouled when through on goal.

The scoring was completed when Dillet Gilkes’ cross was helped across the D by Hunter, with Mike Millane latching on to the loose ball and smartly spinning round the keeper.

There was still time for Fanger to pick up a second yellow card for another clumsy tackle, but the remaining minutes ticked by with no major scares in the Chelmsford defence. The only negative for Chelmsford came after the game when it was found that Fanger played the majority of the match with a broken arm and will miss the next six weeks of the season.

Man of the Match: Ian Belchamber