It was derby day delight for NUFC Women. Shania Hayles’ goal eight minutes after coming on was the difference as Newcastle United did the league double over Sunderland. Hayles’ strike on 77 minutes was enough to seal the victory for Becky Langley’s side.
It meant Wor Lasses go above Sunderland into sixth in the Barclays Women’s Championship table and although promotion is perhaps still only an outside possibility it is still mathematically possible for The Geordies who have five games left to play.
In front of an incredible Club and second tier Women’s record-breaking crowd of 38,502 at a noisy St James’ Park, Langley was sent off before full-time, seemingly for holding onto the ball too long. It was part of a tense finish on a great afternoon for the home side.
For Sunderland, they never really got going and were deservedly beaten in the end. Manager Mel Reay’s side have now lost successive league games as well as United bounced back from last week’s ‘other’ derby day defeat at Durham.
Much has been made of the competitive nature of the Championship this season and indeed a remarkable statistic that was confirmed by United’s 1 – 0 win showed exactly why that has been a talking factor this season. It also shows that the fight for the North East’s top teams is really tight.
United have done the double over Sunderland. Sunderland have done the double over Durham and Durham did the double over United. If that doesn’t show that the differences between all three sides is very small and that teams in the Championship are evenly matched nothing does.
In truth this was a full-blooded tight affair with neither side really carving out any clear-cut openings. Apart from an early chance for United, neither goalkeeper was severely tested until Hayles’ late intervention.
Defences were well on top. Midfields were very combative and front lines struggled to make inroads in a game where both sides were desperate for the three points but also didn’t want to lose. At 90 Minutes that unwanted honour of successive defeats did fall to Sunderland.
At half-time and with chances at a premium most pundits in and around the game agreed that it was going to take a piece of magic/inspiration/quality to decide the outcome. Most though also perhaps believing that it wouldn’t come and a scoreless afternoon might be the result.
That was until Hayles stepped up from the bench to register her tenth goal of the season as United’s top scorer in her first season in black and white. The Jamaican international showing she knows the way to goal in splendid style.
On the balance of play though United did deserve the victory. They were the side more often than not on the front foot and pushing hard and did have the better of the few chances that fell to either side. Indeed, they could have been ahead inside two minutes.
Demi Stokes’ long-ball from left back catching the Black Cats defence square and Beth Lumsden was away and in on goal at The Leazes End. The speedy wide forward who was ‘The Mackem Slayer’ at The Stadium of Light back in October last year presented with a chance to give United an early lead.
But she was denied that opportunity by a superb 1-on-1 block by the visitor’s goalkeeper Demi Lambourne. The ex-Reading stopper spreading herself to keep out Lumsden’s goal bound effort in fine style.
Little did we know that was going to be the only real time either keeper was called upon to make a difficult save. United did press in the first half and came the closest to breaking the deadlock. From a Lumsden free kick Rachel Furness got up highest to head past Lambourne but the scrambling Sunderland defence hacked the ball off the line.
United recycled and Deanna Cooper found herself unmarked inside the six-yard box but couldn’t get the ball out of her feet to get a clean strike on goal. New signing Freya Godfrey then got on the end of a Lumsden right wing cross but her spectacular left foot volley flew wide of the target.
Level and goalless at the half neither side really took the initiative until bedlam broke out on 77 minutes and Hayles wrote her name into the football history books. The goal actually coming when Sunderland committed players forward and left space at the back.
A combination of Lumsden and Jas McQuade winning the ball for United and McQuade getting it forward into her own centre circle for the direct powerful Emily Murphy to attack the heart of the away defence. Hayles curling around her strike partner into space and having a quick look across the line.
Murphy sensing the right moment played the ball into the box to find Hayles who from the inside right position turned inside Jessie Stapleton and from 14-yards smashed a sweet left-foot finish in the Gallowgate end past a static Lambourne.
The stadium absolutely erupted. Limbs every and the noise inside of it was incredible as over 37,000 Geordies in the crowd celebrated wildly and the 800 or so Sunderland fans fell silent as they contemplated a second derby defeat.
Could the visitor’s respond. Well, they did try but this Newcastle side was not going to let them spoil a historic occasion for the Club and controlled the closing stages superbly well. Sunderland not even able to get a strike on goal as time ticked down.
There was one black spot or should that be red spot/card for United but it was off the pitch as Manager Langley was dismissed from the dugout under an FA directive. A ball had gone into her technical area and the referee deemed that Langley had delayed the restart of the game.
As United were one-up and under the FA ruling it was an automatic red card for the United manager. Not that it made the slightest bit of difference to the final result. Indeed, when the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the game it was Langley sprinting from the tunnel that was almost the first onto the pitch.
The celebrations were justified. It had been a tough, tough, tough loss at Durham but to bounce back by beating the old enemy at St. James Park in front of that massive record breaking 38, 502 attendance was indeed something worth celebrating.