First Derby Of The Season Preview

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 next two weeks it would not only put us right in the mix for top spot and the much coveted WSL promotion spot as we head towards the first international break of the season we would also be well on course for the 25 point mark and securing our place in tier two for another season. That being said, ignoring the pre-season friendlies, the last time we lost to a WSL side that match was followed by our only league loss of last season, 1-2 to Nottingham Forest. Hopefully history won't repeat itself this afternoon. And you have to go right back to 2018/19 for the last time we lost more than two consecutive matches. I really wouldn’t want to go into the Sunderland match on the back of the Everton result and a loss to Durham.

Durham are a club who have been in the Barclays Women's Championship, and it's precursor WSL2, since their formation in 2014. A decade in tier 2 is a significant accomplishment, made all the more impressive when you consider they don't have the benefit of being linked to an established men's side. 2015/16 to 2018/19 saw four consecutive top five finishes with the club winning the 2017 FA Women's Super League 2 Club of the Year award at the 2017 FA Women's Football Awards. A 3rd place finish in 2019/20 was improved upon when they finished runners up to Leicester City in 2020/21 before dropping to 6th, 7th then 9th last season during which they were on the receiving end of both the biggest home (Crystal Palace 9 - 1 Durham) and biggest away (Durham 1 - 5 Crystal Palace) wins of the season.  Durham held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw during the 2021/22 season, turned fully professional ahead of the 2022/23 season and signed a groundbreaking deal with Nike in summer 2023.

Despite both their manager from last season, Claire Ditchburn, and top scorer Amy Andrews, moving North during the summer to join NUW I feel Durham will come into this match full of confidence - 9 points out of 12, 7 goals and 2 clean sheets, only loss to league leaders Charlton Athletic and a midweek League Cup victory over Blackburn Rovers in 90 minutes. Also, what intrigues me with this match, the possibility of a decent sized away end, something we don’t often see at Kingston Park, how much of a factor will that be?

For our part, going into these next two matches in particular, I wish we still had Anna Soulsby, she would’ve been one of the first names on my team sheet. I expect Claudia Moan, Shania Hayles and Beth Lumsden to return after presumably being rested on Wednesday. After making her return on Wednesday I’d find it difficult to leave Emma Kelly out. No, it’s not Sunderland but it’s still a local derby, the perfect opportunity to bring Kacie Elson into the starting 11.  Adopted Geordie if not by birth, she clearly loves the club and played a huge role in getting us out of tiers 4 and 3. Wallsend born Katie Barker as well will hopefully feature. Frightening pace between Lumsden, Elson & Barker. Then of course theirs Pottsy and captain Stobbs. And Liv Watt or Lois Joel? I’m glad I don’t have to pick.

I predict a 2-1 home win, goals from Lumsden and Haywood with Beth Hepple scoring for Durham. Looking forward to being back in the South stand with our growing standing section.

Enjoy the match and may the lasses take the first Northeast bragging rights of the season.