Norwich City boss Martin Herdman revealed he was satisfied with a 1-1 draw away at Worthing, who he believes are "one of the best teams" in the Women's National League Division One South East.
Ellie Smith netted her second goal in as many games to cancel out Chloe Winchester's opener and ensure that City would not return from their long trip to West Sussex empty-handed.
The Canaries had not dropped a single point on the road this season prior to Sunday but their head coach was keen to reflect positively on what was a challenging afternoon.
Herdman said: "We always come to win the games, but Worthing are a top side, one of the best teams in the division by far. (In the) first half we weathered a literal storm, and then we came out and gave a really good account of ourselves.
"I think we were surprisingly happy at one-nil at half-time because it was a deluge with the wind. Every time you played forward it was coming back.
"I watched the clips of them the other day, and I was very surprised by how good they were. I kept saying to the girls, 'we're in for a hell of a game this week'.
"They have some good patterns of play that we're still learning, and we just get into a dogfight, stay in there for the first half, and we knew (in the) second half we'd likely have the better of it.
"I think it's a fair result if I'm honest."
Smith's leveller saw her head home one of Anna Larkins' corner deliveries, which have caused multiple opposition teams problems this term, and Herdman was asked to explain the secret behind them.
He answered: "I'll give Ethan (Scott) a bit of credit, our assistant coach. He's been doing a lot of work on the set-pieces, timing our runs and working on the types of crosses we're sending in.
"There were some good throws and some long set-pieces, and that just tells you the kind of game it was. If they were going to score, it was going to be a set-piece, and both sides had some heart-in-mouth moments.
"It's just a shame we couldn't get a few more toe-ends on them, but it is what it is, we take a point and move onto next week."
Standing in City's way next weekend will be West Midlands-based side Boldmere St Michaels in the Women's FA Cup. Looking ahead to the tie, Lauren Tomlinson said the team are eager to build on their impressive first round proper victory over Hashtag United.
"All the girls are absolutely buzzing," she stated. "Everyone loves an FA Cup game.
"It's going to be a different type of game (to Hashtag). We'll probably rotate a little bit and get more girls more minutes, because we've got a massively talented squad.
"Obviously Martin didn't use all the subs today, but that shows that we can use our bench when we need to, and sometimes we don't. We're all very excited to get going again."
Tomlinson also commented on the strong on-pitch relationship she has forged with fellow wing-back Alice Parker, which has been a key contributing factor to City's success of late.
She explained: "The very first game I played for Norwich was a friendly against Peterborough (United). Alice played left-back and I played left-wing, and from that moment we knew that we had a good connection where we could ping the ball to each other and kind of know what's going to happen before it happens.
"We both have a very good clip on us, a very good pass, and we can communicate with each other without having to say a word.
"So yeah, the relationship between me and Alice is growing, and I think it works really well for us in this formation, because we can get up to clip those balls in and have shots, but can also get back and defend balls."
Norwich City (3-4-2-1): Quantrill; Larkins (c), Flye, Strauss; Parker, Morran, Knights, Tomlinson; Smith (Lawrence 87), Todd; Snelling (Symonds 79). Subs not used: Daviss, Hailes, Shaw.
