Norwood key forward Leigh Williams boots 11 goals to help Norsemen to a 69-point win over East Ringwood

A STUNNING 11-goal haul from Norwood key forward Leigh Williams helped the Norsemen string together their third consecutive win.

Norwood forward Leigh Williams. Picture: Chris Eastman

A STUNNING 11-goal haul from Norwood key forward Leigh Williams helped the Norsemen string together their third consecutive win on Saturday after accounting for East Ringwood by 69 points.

Williams had a day out, booting 11.6 in the 19.15 (129) to 8.12 (60) win to single-handedly move the Norsemen to a 3-3 record and within one game of the Eastern Football League top five.

When asked to assess Williams’ game, Norwood coach Denis Knight said, “Give it a 10”.

“To be fair, he probably gave three or four away as well,” Knight said.

“You could call it a reasonable input on a game, I would have thought.

“He had a reasonable match-up and the game evolves so when someone is dominating in a position, you magnetise yourself to the ball.”

Norwood led by just four points at the first change but dominated proceedings from that point.

The visitors put on 5.6 to two behinds in the second term to extend its advantage to 38 points at the main break.

Another five goals to two in the third term helped the Norsemen to a 56-point advantage at three-quarter time before running out 69-point winners.

“To be fair, they probably had the better of us in the first term and we probably didn’t play the ground the correct way and they probably beat us in close and had a bit more of the footy,” Knight said.

“From there after, I thought particularly our second and third quarters, was very good.”

After unexpectedly dropping its first three games, Norwood has responded to re-emerge as a threat in 2017.

However, after three wins against sides in the bottom half of the ladder, the next five weeks shape as season-defining with contests against Balwyn, Vermont, South Croydon, Rowville and Blackburn.

“We’ve probably changed a few things in the way we played, the personnel has changed slightly,” Knight said.

“It wasn’t like we were getting blown out of the water and losing by six or seven goals.

“We felt we didn’t play well at all but we still weren’t too far from it.

“We’re certainly playing a bit better footy than what we were then.

“The next five weeks are pretty tough but in saying that if you went through everybody’s next five weeks you’ll find it’s all pretty tough.”