Howay the Lasses - March Update
Mark is here again with his regular monthly update on the women’s team
Matches played in March:
Barclays Women’s Championship
v Bristol City (H) 3-2
v Durham (A) 3-1
v Sunderland (H) 1-0
v London City (H) 1-2
From not having a home game for five weeks, to three in a month, the BWC’s fixture list is either feast or famine.
This month started with a rip-roaring end-to-end victory over Bristol City (who were relegated from the WSL last season) and outplayed us at their ground earlier in the season. Two identical goals from the ‘Mackem Slayer’ – ‘Super Beth Lumsden’ and another late points-saving goal from Deanna Cooper saw us achieve a win that secures our place in the BWC for next season. Lumsden who has just signed a new contract with the club (along with Lia Cataldo – our regular right back) now sees herself as an ‘adopted Geordie’ and we certainly are not going to disagree with her.
Following this game Elysia Boddy (still unfortunately out injured) was named the NE Sports Writers Association Women’s Young Player of the year. A well-deserved recognition of a player who got an England U-23s call up (where she picked up her injury in a pre-match warm up). Elysia, since arriving last season, has shown real quality in midfield and the sooner she’s back fit, the better.
Other long-standing injuries continue to restrict the teams Becky Langley can put out – Kelly, Watt, Potts, Bartle and loanee Pritchard would all be in the starting 11 or at least on the bench (Kelly was on the bench against the Mackems, but not against London City).
This highlighted a concern amongst fans of the Lasses, namely, the lack of Club communications regarding player injuries, the nature of them and likely return date. When Pritchard was injured in training rumours swept the stands that she was out for the season and was returning to Man City for rehab; neither of which were true.
Whether this was the catalyst or not, the club organised a fan engagement event where Lasses fans were consulted on several topics – match going experience, ability to take a drink into the seats, barriers to attendance, communications with fans etc. Those who went - I unfortunately couldn’t - reported a very positive event with the club representatives genuinely appearing interested and that they listened to the fans.
Subsequently, the Lasses have appeared more prominently on the official app/on-line presence and there have been more images of injured players back in training. This became more evident in the run-up to THE derby match (sorry Durham, the match against yourselves is equivalent, in my eyes, to games against Boro for the men – more important to you than us). There was also free travel in Tyne & Wear with a match ticket for the derby, which was a great idea. I’ve always argued for a Magpie Mover ticket (which allows for free public transport with a match ticket) for the Lasses matches.
Whilst I’m on about the derby (you can read my match report on-line via True Faith), the fact that 38,502 people attended our 1-0 victory (the goal was scored by Shania Hayles) is astonishing, breaking the club’s own attendance record for the Lasses, smashing the league’s record (previously held by the Mackems in their 1-2 defeat to us…) and making us the third highest attended women’s football team in the country (including the WSL)!
In a recent podcast (by ‘Adopted Geordies’), Lumsden, Emma Kelly and Captain Wor Captain, Amber-Keegan Stobbs (ole ole ole…), came across as grounded, confident women with a love of the team, city and fans, and you can’t ask for more than that.
The Durham away match was a deserved defeat in terms of the terrible first half performance, despite us taking the lead via Murphy, one of only a couple of occasions when the Lasses looked well off the pace and unable to contend with a physical approach and long ball hoofs up the pitch. Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang anyone?
Murphy has been outstanding in the recent games and won SELA player of the month for March. A call up to the Eire squad for Murphy was well deserved; Chapman and Gregory were both called up for the first time to the Scotland squad, with Hayles joining up with the Jamaica team again - congratulations lasses.
The other loss this month was an undeserved 1-2 defeat to London City Lionesses (LCL). Due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn’t attend this game, so there’s no match report, sorry folks. Their manager stated they were lucky to get anything from the game; but they took their chances and other then Lumsden (her sixth goal of the season), we didn’t. A Lumsden free kick at the death came back off the bar with their keeper beaten and would have earned a draw, but it wasn’t to be.
Draws have cost us a higher position in the league. The 3-3 home draw with Charlton still annoys me, with us having led 3-1 until injury time (Stobbs was red carded and the Lasses struggled to cope with the resulting Charlton pressure). 1-1 away to Sheffield United was another poor result (it could have been a lot worse but for Furness’ injury time equaliser), particularly as they now sit bottom of the league.
However, looking at the season (to date), the Lasses have performed really well against well-established Championship teams with years of experience at this level. Portsmouth who came up with us have only just got off the foot of the table (four points off the Mackems have certainly helped) and looked certain to go straight back down for most of the season.
There are four more matches to play this season - home and away to Blackburn, home to second placed Birmingham (who we beat away at St Andrews, the Lasses being the first Newcastle United team to win there this season!) and away to Charlton.
Promotion is no longer possible following the loss to LCL, but we should aim to finish as high as possible in the league and management can use this opportunity (once all our injured players are back) to assess the squad to see where it needs to be strengthened.
Following the last of the four games I’ll write a season summary and submit match reports to those games I attend.
So, until then and as ever –
Howay the Lasses!
Mark Stutt
Interesting point that our game against Durham is more important to them than us. I'd argue that the same applies to the mackems for both the lads and lasses. We're leaving them behind