Norwich City Women interim head coach Scott Emmerson lauded his "impacters" after two substitutes came off the bench to score for the Canaries and earn a dramatic 2-2 draw away at league leaders AFC Wimbledon.

An unfortunate Alice Parker own-goal followed by a smart volley from Dons forward Ashlee Hincks had put the hosts in a commanding position in South London, where a total of 625 supporters gathered for this important top-of-the-table clash.

Defeat to Wimbledon would have all but ended City's chances of promotion to the third tier of the women's pyramid, but late second-half efforts from Holly Kennard and Shannon Shaw meant the Canaries kept their faint title hopes alive.

Eastern Daily Press: Rachel Lawrence creates space for Ellie Smith to move the Canaries attack forward

Immediately after the game, City boss Emmerson offered his take on a well-fought encounter.

"You can see why they're top, to be fair," he stated. "They gave us a good battle.

"I thought in the first 20, 25 (minutes) we caused them some issues, and I think they just got the rub of the green with the own goal unfortunately, where Alice has just tried her best to get something on it.

"I think we created more than them, definitely in the first half. We just haven't been clinical enough at times, but we got there in the end.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I don't call them subs. I call them impacters. And to be fair, they've impacted the game and that's their responsibility.

Eastern Daily Press: Shannon Shaw rises above the Dons Goalkeeper to find the equaliser at 90+3

"They need to impact it in any way that they can to show me they need to be starting, and asking different questions of us as coaching staff."

City possess two games-in-hand over Wimbledon, but even if the Canaries were to win all of their remaining six matches, they would still require the leaders to drop points in two games of their own for promotion to be possible.

"It was always going to be a challenge to come here today and get a win," Emmerson declared.

"We've just spoken to the girls, they're unbeaten still, and for the youth in the side to gain that experience today has helped them and helped the club in the future.

"We can move forward and have that exposure so that we're ready for different opportunities. But it's never over until it's over.

"They've won the last three games and haven't conceded a goal. We've done our homework, we've made sure we've challenged them enough.

Eastern Daily Press: Natasha Snelling pressures the Dons attempts at bringing the ball out from defence

"If that catalyst happened say 10 minutes earlier, you're wondering what if a little bit, but overall, we'll take the point, we'll move on and we're still unbeaten."

For goalkeeper Sarah Quantrill, who made a string of impressive saves to keep City in the contest, simply remaining undefeated would not be satisfying enough.

She said: "We've just got to keep pushing, we've got the mentality. To stay unbeaten is a pretty good thing, but it means nothing if we don't at least challenge (for the title).

"We still genuinely believe that we can catch them. We need to keep winning those games in case they do (slip up).

"We can't give up now, because if they do slip up and we've given up, then we've thrown it away.

"So we just have to keep going, keep pushing, and put as much pressure on them as we can."

Throughout Sunday's well-attended match, Quantrill had to put up with a large number of home fans standing behind her goal, but used her years of high-level playing experience to block out the noise.

She explained: "When you're in the game, you don't really notice so much, and don't think too much about what they're chanting at you.

"That's all part of the game growing, we're going to get that more and more. You've just got to be professional and you've got to ignore it.

"If you get a chance, you've got to give a bit back to them, and they'll usually respect that as well.

"It was a really good atmosphere, and credit to our fans for turning out as well, because they really helped to push us over the line at the end."

Norwich City (3-4-2-1): Quantrill; Larkins (c) (Kennard 55), Flye, Strauss (Shaw 90); Parker, Knights, Morran, Tomlinson (Symonds 80); Smith (Hailes 80), Lawrence; Snelling. Unused sub: Pernet.