Norwich City women's defender Alice Parker could barely contain her excitement afetr registering two goals and an assist in the Canaries' first Carrow Road victory.

City beat Ashford Town 5-3 to mark the occasion of their first ever game at the stadium, with 7,585 fans pouring in to watch the display

“I can’t stop smiling," player of the match Parker said post-match. "I feel quite emotional to be honest. It’s a childhood dream come true, so it’s been incredible.

“Quite frankly 7,000 people watching me has never happened before, and we are incredibly grateful. I don’t think it’s a moment we’ll forget.

“I can’t believe I’ve scored. It’s been incredible, I never score! To score two here, I never dreamt of it. But a goal’s a goal, and I’ll take them all! As long as it goes in the back of the net, that’s all I care about."

The 20-year-old is hopeful the game can boost future interest in the women's team, with the ambition that fixtures in NR1 could become a regular occurrence.

“I think we’ve shown everyone what we can do today," she continued, "so I hope more can come (next time). I hope we double it (the attendance).

“I’d love to come back here, all the girls would. It’s a place we want to call home, and I think we deserve to play here now.

“We’ve put in so much hard work, and we really are stepping in the right direction. If we do want to achieve big, I think we deserve to play here.

“We are a special bunch, and I hope they believe in us as much as we believe in ourselves. Next year we are going to kick on, and I really, truly believe we will do something really special.”

Parker believes that the extra support from playing at Carrow Road is not the only benefit, with its pitch suiting City's style of play.

"We suit this pitch, we suit a nice pitch. We suit playing on nice flat grass, we're not too keen on a bobbly pitch, so playing on this was an absolute dream.

"It was very different when we went away to them - their pitch was different to this. It (the Carrow Road pitch) is an absolute carpet. It's the best pitch I've ever played on.

"I'll remember it forever, the girls will as well. Fingers crossed we play here more.

"It's the start of something big. We love The Nest, hopefully we can get more people down there. If we perform, we should be back here."