Norwood close gap to defeat the Bloods

NORWOOD has well and truly kept their finals hopes alive with an 11-point win against West Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.

In their first game at Thebarton Oval, the Redlegs kicked their first goal of the game through Tessa Hankinson, as she marked strongly in the goal square after a kick from gun midfielder Najwa Allen.

Despite conceding the second of the game, Alana Lishmund made no mistake with her set shot from 35-metres out proving deadly accurate to hand the Redlegs a six-point lead at the first break.

The second quarter proved to be a tight opening term with both sides vying for field position and threatening to break the game open.

It took until the last minute for West Adelaide to register the first goal of the quarter reducing the deficit to two points at the main break.

The Redlegs continued to dominate the third term, however, proved inaccurate with West Adelaide still well and truly in the contest.

In took until four minutes into the final term for Norwood to make their move as Jess Macolino worked her way through some heavy traffic to get the ball to gun forward Matilda Zander who made no mistake to extend Norwood lead out to 11-points.

The Bloods responded just two minutes later with a set from 35 successfully converted as it proved to be a thrilling last ten minutes of SANFLW action.

Hankinson popped up again the run around from a tight angle to boot her second and give the Redlegs a much-needed win against the third-placed West Adelaide.

Norwood now faces Glenelg this Saturday in their final clash of the season at Coopers Stadium from 11:30am.

SCOREBOARD:

NORWOOD: 2.1 2.4 2.7 4.9 (33)

WEST ADELAIDE: 1.1 2.2 2.3 3.4 (22)

GOALKICKERS: Hankinson 2, Lishmund, Zander

BEST: Macolino, Breed, Allen, Armitstead, Murison, Zander, Hiscock, Sporn