HOWAY THE LASSES

After the initial El Lassico match, credit Jamie Gallon, saw Middlesbrough come out on top 4-1 against Durham Cestria in the FAWNL Cup Determining Round back in August, this past weekend saw the first league Lassico of the season with Boro once again hosting Cestria.  Boro retained the bragging rights with a 3-0 win which keeps them top of Division One North, a point ahead of Chorley with a game in hand. Two goals from Millie Bell and one from Leanna Giles securing all 3 points in front of 298 fans at Stockton Town FC.  Nikki Gears in the starting line up for Cestria, no Keira Skelton for Boro meant Grace Boyes joins a regular core of Ellen Turnbull, Lauren Robson, Leanna Giles, Sharna Wilkinson and Millie Bell. Turnbull almost put Boro ahead in the first minute with what would've been her 4th of the season but hit her shot wide of the target. Abby Towers almost with two assists in the opening 15 minutes for Boro, firstly finding Leanna Giles who did well to control the ball b...

Last weekend saw a return to cup action for the region's FAWNL teams and the FAWNL Cup Quarter final draw hasn't half produced a cracker of a cup tie for 1st December 2024.  Durham Cestria's FAWNL Plate run has come to an end for this season. Following a 4-1 loss to Middlesbrough in the first "El Lassico" of the season back in August in the FAWNL Cup Determining Round, Cestria recorded a 0-2 victory against Northern Premier Division side Sporting Khalsa to set up last weekend's all Division One North clash with Stockport County in the second round of the Plate. Nikki Gears in the starting 11 for Cestria and fantastic news that Anna Soulsby's ACL GoFundMe has hit it's £12k target so hopefully not long until Anna can begin her road to recovery.  A strong start from the home team saw them open the scoring on 22 minutes. A free Stockport free kick was launched into the Cestria penalty area, after being headed back across goal it was tapped in at the post b...

Depending on other results, wor lasses could finish today joint top of the Championship. It would need a lot to go right for us elsewhere and a minimum 7-0 win at Kingston Park to go top outright but a win potentially sees us joint top and with a game in hand. As the last two seasons have shown, once we reach top of the league we are very difficult to shift.  Remember folks, kick off is 12 noon today, not the usual 2PM. I've only been able to find details of one previous fixture between the two clubs, a huge 10-0 home win for Charlton way back on 7th February 2016. There are some connections between the two teams, NUW club captain Amber-Keegan Stobbs helped Charlton to a 3rd place finish in the Championship in 2018/19, 5 points behind Spurs in a season where two WSL promotion spots were up for grabs. Anyone recall who controversially won that first Women's Championship season at the first attempt? 18 appearances, 1 goal and 1 yellow card for Amber. Going into the 2019/20 season...

I'll come back to the Wear-Tyne derby in a separate post, hopefully tomorrow time permitting, but as weekend's go this past Sunday couldn't have gone much better for teams throughout the region (and Yorkshire), plus associated teams / players outside of the Northeast. No injuries, first goals and teams reaching the first round proper of the Adobe Women's FA Cup. The Northern Premier Division was in league action this weekend and featured the East Midlands derby between Derby County and league leaders Nottingham Forest in front of 1,225 fans at Mickleover Sports Club. Starting for Derby County was on loan NUW defender Daisy Burt, last season's NUW top scorer Bridget Galloway was on the bench for Forest.  Early pressure from the visitors saw Forest go 0-1 up after 11 minutes only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. Forest almost ahead again on 21 minutes but after going past the Derby keeper Mel Johnson hit the side netting. In the defining moment of the first h...

"Oh, this is the one / This is the one / I've waited for". The song may be mainly associated with a wee club in the Northwest but the track from Stone Roses' classic debut album hits the nail squarely on the head when it comes to today's Wear-Tyne derby, the first time such a match has taken place in the Barclays Women's Championship. From the moment promotion from the FAWNL Northern Premier Division was confirmed, I'm sure I'm not the only NUW fan who anxiously awaited confirmation of the dates of the Wear-Tyne and Tyne-Wear derbies this season. Today, the first of those has arrived. Getting the elephant in the room out of the way first, the result against Durham at Kingston Park last weekend was not ideal prep for today's considerably bigger derby match. Maybe it was the knock on effect from the league cup match during the week against WSL opposition Everton, but something wasn't quite right last weekend. NUW didn't create the chances the...

As we approach the half way point in FAWNL Tier 3, the Northern Premier Division, Bridget Galloway celebrated Forest’s return to the City Ground in typical Bridget fashion, with a goal. Elsewhere, in Tier 4 Division One North, despite having not played for these last two matches due to what is now known to be an ACL injury, speedy recovery Anna, Cestria's Anna Soulsby remains top scorer in tier 4 although this is now a 3 way tie rather than out on her own. Also, a rare 0-0 draw for Middlesbrough, is enough to keep them top of the league. As many NUW or Northeast women's football fans will be aware, following her injury against Norton & Stockton Ancients Anna Soulsby requires ACL surgery before she can get back on the pitch. At the age of just 22 this will be Anna's second ACL surgery. The previous injury, 3 years ago, kept her out of football for 18 months. After making an impressive start to the season with Cestria it would be a huge blow to a promising career if she w...

I'm mixing my sports slightly here but in the immortal words of "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair WHOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!! The big matches just keep coming at the minute. After Wednesday night's draw with WSL opposition Everton in the first League Cup match of the season and ahead of next Sunday's trip to the Stadium of Light for the highly anticipated Tyne-Wear derby, high flying Durham, currently second in the league, visit Kingston Park this afternoon for a "big derby" warm up. I was talking to my postman yesterday morning, he is of the opinion that this run of games from Everton on Wednesday just gone to Charlton Athletic, current league leaders, on 20th October will make or break NUW's debut Championship season. Whilst his suggestion of dropping Big Dan Burn for the recent NUFC vs Man City match proved to be a horrendously bad call, I'm inclined to agree with him here. If we could take 7 to 9 points from Durham, Sunderland and Charlton Athletic over the...

  Just before I get in to the match preview, despite what the graphic says above kick off is in fact 7:00 PM not 7:45 PM.  Newcastle United Women get their highly anticipated run at the Women's League Cup underway this evening with a rematch against WSL side Everton who came away 4-0 victors in a behind closed doors pre-season friendly in August. Yes, in theory, we could've got what many would consider a much easier group but three WSL opponents is great for the fans and there's always the possibility of at least one upset (see you in December Man Utd). There has only been one previous meeting between both clubs, excluding this summer's pre-season friendly, NUW hosting Everton in the Women's FA Cup on 24th February 2008. Fara Willaims, with 177 England caps the Lionesses most capped player, opened the scoring for the visitors with a 12th minute penalty on their way to a 1-3 win, 86th minute consolation goal coming via our own Rachel Furness who would've been the...