Norwich saw their hopes of Axa Women's F.A Cup glory disappear for another year, after an emotional roller-coaster of a match, against Midland Combination League leaders Peterborough Utd.

City struggled to come to grips with the compact Peterborough pitch during the first half with the home side harrying Racers out of their stride and preventing them from playing their preferred passing game. Boro' themselves looked dangerous particularly when exploiting space down the left of the Norwich defence. City battled hard and in the 40th minute took the lead when Lou Hudson out jumped a defender in the area to head the ball down for Tamar Upton to sweep the ball home from close range.

The lead was comparatively short lived as 5 minutes after the interval Boro' again attacked down the right and their winger cut inside to loop a shot over the Norwich keeper. Both sides upped their pace in an attempt to snatch the winner but despite chances at both ends the score remained at 1-1 at the end of normal time.

Racers slowly gained the upper hand during extra time with efforts from Vanessa Kemp and Gemma Farman going narrowly wide. With ten minutes remaining Racers took the lead when Kemp, who seemed to be well covered, engineered an opening for herself and curled a shot with the outside foot round the Boro' keeper.

Norwich looked like they would hang on to their lead despite intense pressure but then in the third minute of injury time the home side grabbed a dramatic equaliser with an unstoppable drive from the corner of the penalty area. Even then Racers might have won when Upton's shot was blocked by the keeper and looped into the path of onrushing substitute Kim Shellock, who leapt and managed to make contact with the ball only to see her header crash into the crossbar and rebound to safety with the final whistle sounding immediately afterwards

The agony of penalties then ensued and after the statutory 5 kicks each side had converted 4, Norwich keeper Yvonne Howes, saving one, and one City kick hitting the crossbar. Both sides converted their first sudden death kicks. Peterborough then missed with their second, but City were unable to capitalise with their next attempt being hit straight at the keeper. Boro' then scored with their next penalty, and Norwich hit what turned out to be the final kick of the afternoon over the bar, to provoke wild scenes of celebration from the home supporters.

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