CHERRIES women were knocked out of the League Cup after suffering their first defeat of the season, a 2-1 loss to Norwich City.

Steve Cuss’s charges had battled back to respond to Freya Symonds’ 55th minute opener for the Canaries, Lucy Cooper equalising 20 minutes from time at Long Lane.

Cherries smacked the woodwork on three occasions in the closing stages, with Norwich producing a winner in extra time through Sarah Quantrill.

Discussing the game with afcb.co.uk, Cuss shared: "I'm really pleased with performance.

“Obviously I'm disappointed with the result and to be out of the cup, but I can't fault the performance.

“ I thought it was really strong. 

"I'm obviously disappointed with the goals that we let in. I thought our possession was good and the number of chances we created was good.

"We were a little bit unlucky with a couple off the line and one that hit the post, but in fairness it was two good teams who are top of their respective league. I thought it was a good advert for the National League. 

"There's obviously a disappointment there but the performance was encouraging. Hopefully we can bounce back from that in the coming weeks." 

Cherries: Kosinska, Jones, Bleazard, Venditto, Cooper, Barron-Clark, McGuinness, James, Hillier, Gilroy, A Treweek.

Subs: Smith, Elkins, Fripp (g/k), Gladwell, Buckingham.