Lancaster City 2, Whitby Town 0: Golden oldie Norris is Dollies’ match winner

After being on the sidelines in recent weeks, the 42-year-old former Luton Town and Ipswich midfielder was brought back into the starting XI.

It turned out to be an inspired move as Norris brought a calmness in front of goal that allowed Lancaster to find their clinical edge and seal a second successive home victory by a score of 2-0.

The hosts got off to a bright start with Charlie Bailey close to putting Lancaster into a very early lead when he had the ball in the net inside 10 minutes, but Giant Axe joy was cut short as the officials ruled that the striker had fouled his marker before scoring.

However, Norris was on hand to restore smiles to the crowd as three minutes later he had Lancaster 1-0 up for good, clinically finishing.

The linesman’s flag was the only thing dampening the mood, rising to rule out another Lancaster goal, this time from Nic Evangelinos.

Whitby’s only real attempt came when Harry Green’s attempt was saved by Sam Waller and Nathan Woodthorpe cleared to back his keeper up.

In the second half, Lancaster continued to keep Whitby at bay and they pushed for a nerve-settling second, which was nearly found as Evangelinos had an effort stopped on the goal line, but as in the first half, Giant Axe did not have to wait too long for the next goal.

Norris stepped up again, this time to put the game to bed as he capitalised on some good play by Evangelinos. The striker burst forward and fired a shot at goal which was saved but Norris followed up the rebound.

Jamie Mellen made his return to action after injury absence, replacing Brad Carroll with five minutes to go, a welcome re-addition along with Calen Gallagher-Allison who is coming closer to a return.

There was little to worry about defensively as the newly formed trio of Misambo, Woodthorpe and Pawel Zuk gave Whitby little margin for error and stopped their run of excellent form with minimal fuss.