HOWAY THE LASSES

After the midweek round of league games on Wednesday and Thursday this week it was back to cup action for the FAWNL clubs  this afternoon as the FAWNL Cup / Plate's got underway with the first round's proper.  As expected, sadly, no Anna Soulsby in the Durham Cestria line up today. There has been no update on Cestria's social media regarding Anna's condition since she went off with an injury on Thursday but hopefully no news is good news and it won't be long until Soulsby is back on the team sheet.  Tier 4's Cestria travelled to Willenhall is the West Midlands to take on Sporting Khalsa, currently bottom of the Northern Premier Division with 6 losses from 6 and goal difference of -25, in the first round of the FAWNL Plate. A first half stoppage time goal from Daisy Clarke, her second of the season, sent Cestria in to the half time with.a 0-1 lead. The score stayed the same for the entirety of the second half until a 96th minute Erin Nicholson goal, also her seco...

It's the longest away trip of the season today for Newcastle United Women, fantastic effort from all of those who have made the trip down, however despite the contrasting starts to the season for both clubs I have a suspicion this is going to be as close a match as last season's FAWNL Cup Semi Final at St. James' Park was. It'll be a surprise to nobody reading this that I rate Beth Lumsden very highly, I'd love to see her be given a long term contract like Elysia Boddy recently signed. I suspect Beth will play a large part in, hopefully, 3 points for the lasses as she comes up against her former team for the first time. I'm not convinced Portsmouth have been the same team since she joined NUW in January, I had intended to contact the club to see if I could get her thoughts on the match, anxiety, many re-writes of my Maddy Cusack post and a busy couple of weeks at work got the better of me but maybe, hopefully,  for the home match.  Photo credit: Gavan McNally Po...

Wednesday and Thursday saw the first round of midweek league fixtures this season for FAWNL Division One North and Northern Premier Division. Surprisingly, despite the weather, all the games went ahead as scheduled however, looking back, it may have been better if some of the matches had been rained off as injuries, sadly, played a big part in proceedings.  Starting at Station Road for Norton & Stockton Ancients hosting Durham Cestria on Thursday evening, it's never nice to hear about any player going down with an injury but it was particularly upsetting to read on social media that Anna Soulsby had been stretchered off the field and was heading to hospital. It's difficult to not want to see Anna succeed, a friendly lass who really appreciates the fans, it was great to see Anna not only stay in the North East but have a fantastic start to the season after not being retained by NUW. Wishing you a speedy recovery, hopefully the injury is not as bad as it sounds and you are so...

We are, indeed, here to compete. This past Sunday in front of 3,221 fans at Kingston Park (last season's average attendance was 2,811) Newcastle United Women played their long awaited first home match in the Barclays Women's Championship against Sheffield United Women and came away with their first win in the current format of the second tier of the women's football pyramid.  Before kick off a minute's applause was held as a tribute to long time NUW photographer Colin Lock who sadly passed away this summer. Again, thank you for everything you did not only for NUW but to raise the profile of the women's game as a whole and encouraging me to write this blog. RIP Colin.  Photo credit: Gavan McNally In my match preview post, I mentioned I'd like to see Beth Lumsden get more game time than she did in Bromely on the opening weekend of the season against London City Lionesses. Well, Lumsden was back in the starting 11 for Sunday's match and it took her all of 5 min...

It barely seems 5 minutes since opening weekend of the FAWNL season and yet we have reached the quarter season mark already, time really is flying. A little on the quiet side compared to the last few weekends in terms of contributions from former NUW players but still some significant happenings across Division One North and the Northern Premier Division.  No Bridget Galloway in the Nottingham Forest squad this week but a 0-4 win away to Hull City sees Forest retain their place at the top of their league, extending their goal difference to a formidable +28 after 6 matches. League newcomers Rugby Borough maintain the pressure on the leaders, a 4-0 win at home to Derby County, which saw Daisy Burt return to the Derby starting 11, keeps Rugby in second place, still one point behind Forest and with an equally impressive +24 goal difference.  A 2-2 away draw for Wolverhampton Wanderers against a Stoke City side that did not feature Erin Nelson saw Wolves drop from 3rd in the table ...

 NUW fans may not be braving the dark at St. James' Park this afternoon in the Gallowgate End in the rain but for the first time in 23 weeks, almost 6 months since we clinched promotion and the FAWNL Northern Premier Division title with a 10-0 defeat of Huddersfield Town, the lasses return to Kingston Park for the historic first home match in the Barclays Women's Championship against today's opponents Sheffield United. Whilst we are a club very much on the rise after successive promotions and an opening day draw against London City Lionesses a fortnight ago Sheffield United, following the tragic passing of vice captain Maddy Cusack last September -  Maddy Cusack tribute post  - are a club who are trying to rebuild. The club carried out an investigation following a complaint made by the Cusack family. Whilst the third party investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of head coach Jonathan Morgan he was ultimately relieved of his duties in February this year ...

As much as I’ve enjoyed writing this blog so far this summer this is by far the most difficult post I’ve written to date and one that I wish I wasn’t. Whilst I’m grateful to the Maddy Cusack Foundation for allowing me to write this post, a large part of me would prefer to be writing about Maddy as a player to watch in this weekend’s match and the events of last September had never happened. I hope the below is a respectful tribute.  It was one year ago today that Sheffield United Women midfielder Madeleine "Maddy" Cusack tragically passed away. I never got to see Maddy play either in person or on TV and, if I'm being entirely honest, Maddy was not a player I was overly aware of until a year ago, largely on account of the entirety of her career being spent playing two if not three leagues above NUW. That being said, when the news did come out I readily admit it hit me harder than most non-family bereavements have. I remember seeing the original tweet from Sheffield United ...

I'm watching NUFC men vs Wolves as I write this and thinking there's no way this can top last season's trip to the Midlands to watch the lasses agains Wolves. Without doubt one of the highlights of last season's away days, never have I seen a goal silence home supporters as instantly as Katie Barker's 89th minute winner did.  But back to today, FAWNL Plate / FAWNL Cup matches this weekend meant Anna Soulsby and Durham Cestria have a weekend off however there were plenty of goals across the Cup matches and a chance for Nottingham Forest to open up a six point lead over promotion rivals Burnley in the Northern Premier Division.  The FAWNL Plate determining round saw Norton & Stockton Ancients come out on top of an 8 goal thriller, progressing into the first round proper following a 5-3 AET win against Doncaster Rovers Belles. The Norton starting 11 featured both Bianca Owens, who would play a significant role in the match and Cara Milne-Redhead who didn't have...

London was indeed Calling to the faraway town this past weekend as Newcastle United Women, backed by the vast majority of the record 1,781 crowd, made the 307 mile trip from Kingston Park to Hayes Lane, Bromley to take on London City Lionesses, many people's pick for promotion this season, in their first Barclays Women's Championship match.  To quote Steve Kelly, London City Lionesses will "be a bit like going through doors of a fairground ghost train..... who knows what will happen". I predicted a 1-2 away win on Saturday, didn't quite get that right but a difficult away point was certainly a positive start to the season. Yes, not everything clicked on the day and there's still things to build on but there are teams in the league in a far worse position after the first round of matches.  Photo credit: Gavan Mcnally The first real chance for either team came 5 minutes into the first half, an in-swinging corner kick from new NUW signing Deanna Cooper floated da...

Some surprising results in Division One North and Northern Premier Division this weekend means the league tables have a noticeably different look to how they did last Monday morning but if there's one constant in FAWNL tiers three and four, Anna Soulsby will score goals. Bridget Galloway made her first league start for Nottingham Forest yesterday. Surprisingly in a 9-0 Forest win Galloway was not amongst the scorers. Bridget was one of three half time changes made by Forest, going into the break 3-0 up against Stourbridge the match was effectively over at that point. I've not seen any highlights and the Twitter feed only mentions the first half goals but I hope Bridget impressed on her full league debut. A surprising 1-2 loss to Stoke City for early pacesetters Rugby Borough and a narrow 0-1 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers for Burnley sees Nottingham Forest go out on their own at the top of the league. The only Northern Premier Division team on 12 points after 4 matches, Forest...

18 long weeks after an Anna Soulsby penalty wrapped up a 0-4 win away at West Brom and Newcastle United Women bid farewell to the FA Women’s National League, the teams first season in the Barclays Women’s Championship finally gets underway tomorrow with an away trip down to London City Lionesses.  It is a new start in English women’s football this season with the top two leagues no longer coming under the control of the FA. Tomorrow’s opposition have really taken this new era to heart - new ownership, new ground, new manager and nine new signings. London City Lionesses acquired well respected French manager Jocelyn Prêcheur this summer. Following a three year stint in China, Prêcheur lead Paris Saint-Germain Women to last seasons Coupe de France, the French equivalent of the FA Cup. Marquee signing for London City Lionesses this summer is undoubtedly Sweden captain Kosovare Asllani from AC Milan. Asllani brings significant experience to Hayes Lane having earned 187 caps for Sweden,...

It’s been a busy week in tiers 3 and 4 of the women’s football pyramid with the determining round of the FAWNL Cup held across Wednesday and Thursday evenings before getting back to league action yesterday. Across the week there has been some standout performances from the group of former NUW players still playing in these leagues, notably Nottingham Forest’s Bridget Galloway and Middlesbrough’s Ellen Turnbull. Looking at the midweek FAWNL Cup games first of all, “El Lassico” , credit to Jamie Gallon, certainly lived up to the pre match expectations. A strong Boro side featured former Newcastle United Women players Ellen Packham, Ellen Turnbull, Lauren Robson, Millie Bell, Sarah Burn (Captain) and Grace Boyes. Jane Harland, Keira Skelton, Beth Guy and Sharna Wilkinson started on the Boro bench. Anna Soulsby as per normal was in the starting 11 for Cestria.  Boro were almost ahead inside 3 minutes, Turnbull setting up Jess Mett only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. On the 1...