St Neots Ladies 1sts saw their first Division One North home outing in the East Women’s League end in a heavy defeat.

The promoted locals were beaten 6-1 by a strong Norwich City outfit, who were relegated from the Premier League last season

Paula Bingham hit an equaliser for Saints in the first half, but they were behind again by the break.

Despite matching their visitors for periods of the game, they unable to prevent four further Norwich goals in the second period.

There was no joy for St Ives 1sts at that level either.

They went down 3-1 to Colchester 1sts to suffer a second successive defeat at the start of the new campaign.

A lack of defensive discipline led to the local lasses conceding twice in the opening quarter-of-an-hour.

But their display improved as the game went on and they halved their arrears when Jules Griffiths pounced from a short corner.

St Ives poured forward in search of an equaliser, but Colchester punished them with a clinical counter-attack late on.

Elsewhere, a super Holly Stride strike earned St Ives 2nds their first point of the new season. They drew 1-1 with Cambridge Nomads 1sts in Division Two North-West.

St Neots 2nds lost 2-1 to Bishop’s Stortford 3rds in Division Two of the Five Counties League, but there was success for the 3rds at Division Four level.

Rosie Bettsworth and Sophia Rodley both struck twice in a 5-3 win against Bedford 6ths. Summer Payne hit the other goal.