Howay the Lasses -Blackburn Rovers WFC 1-5 NUWFC

Mark watches the Lasses finish their season in style

Barclays Women’s Championship, 4/5/25

BRWFC 1 - NUWFC 5 (HT 0 - 1)

Venue: Ewood Park

Att: 723

PoTM: Hayles

A seven-hour round trip on a supporters’ bus, cars, and trains took the Lasses’ fans to Ewood Park for the final match in Newcastle United Women’s debut season in the Barclays Women’s Championship and three weeks after we met and howked Rovers 6-0 at KP.

The bus set off from near the Central Station and the passengers were in fine fettle fuelled by Greggs and high spirits to celebrate a successful season. No, the Lasses weren’t in the promotion conversation, but with the chance to finish as high as third (depending on other results) the general consensus was positivity and anticipation for the next season.

The promotion race was to come down to the final game between Birmingham City and London City Lionesses, and much discussion took place on the bus as to which team’s promotion would suit us better for next season’s attempt at promotion.

We arrived two hours before kick-off and a ‘team photo’ was taken with Ewood Park as the backdrop. We were in time to greet the Lasses’ own bus as it dropped the players and staff off; Rachel ‘Hard as Nails’ Furness got a great reception and came out to get a last photo with the fans.

Not realising it was ‘May the 4th’ the sight of a lot of people in Star Wars costumes was a bit confusing, but there was a SW Convention on in Ewood Park (will next season give us A New Hope of promotion? - ed.).

It was nearly 30 years to the day that I was last at Ewood Park for the 94/95 FA Cup replay (Shearer still played for Rovers, but we won 1-2), so I was looking forward to returning. A slight disappointment was that there were no programmes: ‘we’ve stopped doing them’ I was told by a steward. I bet they haven’t stopped for the men’s team… Although with attendances for Rovers’ women averaging 300, they must have decided it wasn’t worth it. The area the fans were sitting in was mixed with Rovers and Toon fans sat amongst each other; the Rovers fans were heavily outnumbered.

Right, on to the match: the Lasses starting 11 were Moan, Stokes, Cooper, Wardlaw, Furness (who was given the captain’s armband – a nice touch by Langley), Lumsden, Gregory, Joel, Murphy and Hayles. Kelly was named as a sub for the first time since her ankle injury but didn’t appear on the bench.

The first ten minutes were constant pressure and almost total possession by the Lasses, with Rovers hardly making it over the halfway line. That pressure was rewarded with a goal following a lovely weighted cross by Stokes converted by a looping header by Hayles to continue her battle with Isobel Goodwin of LCL to win the Golden Boot. It took until the 24th minute for Rovers to make a significant foray into the Lasses half, but it came to nothing.

Most of Newcastle’s play was going down their left with Stokes and Gregory, on the other wing Lumsden was being double marked and Wardlaw wasn’t pushing up as high as Stokes. Murphy and Joel were buzzing around midfield harrying any Rovers’ possession and Furness was there to break up attacks and clear with headers. At the back Greenwood and Cooper (who has had a great second half of the season), were looking solid and Cooper was sending 40 and 50 yard passes forward à la Schär.

Newcastle’s possession and pressure continued throughout the remainder of the first half. ‘Mackem Slayer’ Lumsden lost her markers and had a shot well saved on 40’. Furness had a shot just wide. Murphy and Hayles linked up well again and nearly created a second goal, but her shot was just wide and the half ended with Murphy’s header (from another peach of a cross from Gregory) flashing wide. So far so good.

Five minutes into the second half Hayles’ shot from point blank range was really well saved by Blackburn’s keeper, Soper. Gregory got on the score sheet three minutes later, after another raking forward pass from Cooper, with the ball lofted over Soper into the far corner.

On 59’ Watt came on for Greenwood and McQuade for Lumsden. The Lasses’ dominance at set pieces (defending and attacking) was rewarded on 60’ with Cooper cleverly heading under Soper after a corner delivered by Gregory. This was, in my opinion, Gregory’s best game since she arrived. It takes time for a player to settle into a new area and gel with their teammates, and that time is being rewarded with her delivering increasingly consistent performances.

Rovers’ best chance came when a free kick was only cleared to the edge of the box and an accurate volley from Rovers’ #10 Williams was tipped over by Moan. The resulting corner was dealt with superbly by Moan. The third goal ended the match as a competition, but the Lasses were being thoroughly professional and on 69’ another ball delivered from a corner by Gregory was headed in by Hayles for her brace and 14th league goal of the season.

Hayles wasn’t finished, however, as five minutes later, a beautiful reverse pass to her from Joel was controlled and curled into the top corner for her second hat-trick of the season. Newcastle were totally dominating the game playing excellent football. Katie Barker came on for Murphy and with two minutes of the 90 left to the delight of the fans, Grace Donnelly (our longest serving player), came on for her 100th league appearance in goal. Moan looked unhappy and subsequently we found out it was because the ref insisted that Moan took the shortest route off the pitch instead of being allowed to greet Donnelly. The game was almost finished and no-one from Rovers would have complained, petty officiating in my opinion.

The Lasses, however, couldn’t see out the match with a clean sheet as Watt fouled Rovers’ #7 Crompton in an attempt to protect Grace’s goal and conceded a penalty. This was converted by their captain Toland. The last few minutes of extra time looked like they were going to be played out without incident. However Toland again got into the box and went down after a fair challenge, she stayed down and a long delay ended with her unfortunately departing on a stretcher. Players and fans applauded her off the field (we all wish her a speedy recovery) and the ref decided that enough was enough blew the whistle and ended our season where we finished in fifth place.

The players came over to the fans at the end as usual and I managed to get my first lasses match (v Alnwick Town at SJP in 2022) programme featuring Katie Barker on the cover signed by wor #9, thanks Katie!

The bus journey home was swift; special thanks to Angela and Michael for organising the buses all season (not forgetting NUSC) and the entertainment, and all were in great spirits discussing how we’re going to get by without footy until September – the Women’s Euros in Switzerland will help.

Arriving back in toon a few of us went for a couple of drinks in the Strawberry to meet loads of rugby league fans who’d been up for the Magic Weekend at SJP. One rugby fan said we’d made good time getting back from Brighton (where Newcastle men were playing away) and was bemused when I insisted we’d just got back from watching Newcastle play Blackburn!

I was chatting to the parents of a couple of our players in the pub and it was fascinating to get their perspective on women’s football from the inside. I won’t reveal who they or the players are to respect their privacy, but the human aspect of football players is mostly overlooked. Fans need to do more to understand this and the contact we can have with the players and their families is something I hope we don’t lose in the future.

This draws to a close my final match report of the season. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them and thank you for doing so. I aim to be back at some point over the summer with a season summary and discussion of the transfers in and out, with the Lasses aiming for promotion to the WSL. Congrats to LSL on their promotion to the WSL.

Finally, and as ever,

Howay the Lasses!

Mark Stutt