Woodford 21
Norwich 19
(London Two North) AFTER a poor start to the season, Woodford secured a morale-boosting victory against mid-table Norwich.

The home team shone throughout and with Newbury, Williams and Phillipson providing good play Woodford looked the dominant side.

The Highams' men displayed a positive approach and early pressure on the Norfolk side's line gave hooker Forster the chance to touch down after three minutes.

This was closely followed by a swift passing attack which produced an overlap for wing-forward Phillipson for a second score that was converted by Dwight for a 12-0 lead in the first quarter.

Norwich then seized a loose ball when an attacking error occurred to run in a converted try making the score 12-7.

Shortly afterwards a similar mishandled movement led to a sprint into the home half and another try was scored and with the extras also added the visitors took 12-14 lead.

Norwich extended their advantage when they followed up a kick to score their third try.

The lead was shortly reduced by a Dwight penalty just before the break to leave Woodford trailing at 15-19.

The second half was evenly contested, with both teams putting pressure on the opposition, although it looked like the visitors would hold out for the points. But continued pressure from Woodford paid off in the final ten minutes, as skipper and man-of-the-match Dwight held his nerve to kick two penalties to snatch the points by a narrow margin.

Delighted coach Peter Christey said: "I'm very pleased with the way we played in patches all the players have worked very hard to achieve this result, hopefully it will give us the confidence to move on and achieve more performances of this calibre."