LASSES DERBY DAY

Ever since I was little, the Wear-Tyne derby has been the most exciting match of the season that I can remember going to, both men and women’s. Last season I went to the derby held at the Stadium of Light, where the Lasses unfortunately lost 2-1, but over the full 90 minutes they put up a good fight, created a lot of chances and had just as many shots on target as Newcastle.

The attendance of this game was 15,387, which topped the 11,137 that showed up to the Sheffield United vs London City Lionesses 2 years ago, making it the new largest attendance at a Women’s Championship game.

During the thrilling derby, the Black Cats received a single yellow card and the Mags picked up two as 23 fouls were made between both teams (eight by Sunderland, 15 by Newcastle).

It took Newcastle until the 28th minute for Beth Lumsden to scoop the ball past our goalkeeper, Demi Lambourne, which kept them in the lead for the first half. Possession was on Newcastle’s side with them having 54% of the possession throughout most of the match, which helped Beth bag a second goal for Newcastle in the 49th minute.

After the second goal, Sunderland stepped up and strengthened their side which resulted in them starting to gain more chances, to change the stats to become nine shots each.

In the 78th minute the ball was misplayed and fell to a red and white shirt, which was then swiftly crossed into the opposition box, where Emily Scarr and Newcastle’s Olivia Watt were both stood. Quickly trying to get the ball out of the box and to the other end of the pitch, Watt couldn’t quite kick it high enough or far enough and ended up tapping it up and over our former keeper Claudia Moan, to give the Black Cats a goal to start their comeback.

However, one goal wasn’t enough and at the end of 90+8 minutes, the score was 2-1 to the Mags.

Throughout the match, Jessie Stapleton and Katie Kitching stood out to me because Jessie, who was out on loan to us from West Ham last season, brought us some WSL experience and always made sure she was on the ball as much as possible, staying tight to the player she was defending.

Kitching is always driving the ball up the pitch to be as close to the goal as possible and even though she couldn’t get herself a goal in this match, she was repeatedly able to give the Lasses a good chance to catch up.