Nottingham Forest came into this game, on the back of a good result the week before and this showed in their confidence on the pitch. Both teams had good chances, with Sunderland’s Emma Bell hitting the post and Nottingham Forest hitting the bar in the first half. Sunderland were guilty of giving silly free kicks away in dangerous areas and for all Forest's good play, goalkeeper Rachael Laws didn't have much to do in the Sunderland goal.
HT … Nottingham Forest Reserves 0-0 Sunderland Reserves
Coming out for the second half, Sunderland dealt with Forests three forwards and managed to finally push on to attack themselves, but Forest opened the scoring after some sloppy mistakes which led to Sunderland giving away a silly free kick in a dangerous area. The ball was allowed to travel a long way, bouncing in the box to one of the Forest players, who came in at the back post, putting the home side in the lead.
Sunderland then came back looking for an equaliser, which came when they pushed the back four into making mistakes. Jordan Atkinson made a menace of herself inside the Forest box, the ball bounced up and she hooked the ball over her shoulder, where Jenny Bradley marked her reserve debut, with a fine goal from a diving header.
Emma Bentley's introduction, added physical presence to Sunderland’s
attack and again Atkinson's good work rate, saw her play through to Bentley, who kept a clean head and calmly put the ball through
the advancing goalkeepers legs, putting the visitors ahead.
Sunderland looked the most comfortable on the ball, with again Laws
not having a great deal to do. However, towards the end of the game, Forest started to push for an equaliser and this came through poor
defending from Sunderland, who allowed a player to run through unmarked, to then slip past Laws who was coming out to close down
the angle.
Sunderland thought they had hit the winner in the last few minutes, when a corner from the left came in and Becky
Salicki rose and headed past the oncoming goalkeeper. The referee initally seemed to give the goal, then changed his mind
and gave a free kick to the Forest goalkeeper.
FT … Nottingham Forest Reserves 2-2 Sunderland Reserves
Manager Mark Pae said after the game … “We didn't really get going today and build on what we have done in the past few weeks. Poor defending cost us silly goals, which we should have easily stopped. Credit to Forest, they never stopped working and they have been our best test so far this season. A draw on reflection was probably the correct result”.
Sunderland Reserves …
Rachael Laws, Vicky Booth (Beth Dixon), Becky Salicki, Jade Clark, Jess Havelock, Jenny Bradley (Dani Scarr), Emma Bell, Sarah Unwin,
Jess Clark, Stacey Simpson (Emma Bentley), Jordan Atkinson, subs not used Lauren Ramshaw, Sarah Wilson
