The visitors however did start to cause Sunderland some problems as they created some good opportunities themselves and Sunderland were grateful to some good last ditch defending with good work by goalkeeper, Rachael Laws, preventing Forest from taking the lead. It was Sunderland who broke the deadlock with some excellent play inside the Forest half.  The ball was played into Simpson who made no mistake this time firing past the keeper to make the score 1-0.  Forest came out fighting and again caused problems in Sunderland’s defending third, which finally led to the visitors being awarded a free kick.  From the resulting ball played into the box, a Forest player found herself free at the back post to head the ball passed Rachael, who managed to get a hand to it but couldn’t prevent the ball from going in the net. The goal shocked a fantastic response from Sunderland and again Simpson was to benefit and hit a terrific right footed shot, which flew past the Forest keeper who didn’t stand a chance.  Sunderland regained possession very quickly and once again asked questions of the Forest defence.  This time the ball found O’Brien who composed herself and hit a terrific right footed curling shot, which went into the top corner, with again the keeper having no chance. Sunderland didn’t stop there however and it wasn’t long before they made it 4-1 with more good work down the right hand side by Fletcher, who laid the ball back to the advancing Jade Clark whose excellent delivery was turned past the Forest keeper by her own defender. HT Sunderland Reserves  4-1  Nottingham Forest

Forest came out the second half similar to the first half, they asked questions of the Sunderland defence.  Again the home side had to keep their concentration as the visitors put the pressure on, looking for a way back into the game.  Sunderland made a change early into the second half with Fletcher being replaced by Jess Clark.  Both sides came out looking to score the next goal which would be crucial to both teams, however it was Sunderland who made the breakthrough.  Simpson made it a hat-trick when she latched onto a good through ball which spilt the fullback and centre half, however she still had a lot to do and took the ball around the advancing keeper before managing to squeeze the ball in  from a narrow angle, making it 5-1.  This proved to be Simpson’s last action of the day, as she made way for Emma Bentley with 30mins to go.  Bentley got straight into the action making herself a real handful for the Forest defence, not letting them settle on the ball.  Once again more good work from the home side resulted in a corner and Jess Clark’s delivery was excellent with O’Brien making her own space to get her second of the game, hitting a first time shot into the roof of the net making the score 6-1.

Sunderland kept the pressure up and again Forest had to be grateful  to their goalkeeper who made some excellent saves.  Helen Wilcox made her first appearance of the season when she replaced Sophie Halliday with 10mins to go.

Manager Mark Pae said after the match … “The last two games with Forest have been close games, so we knew that we would be in for a tough match.  This proved to be the case with Forest playing some good football and asked us lot’s of questions.  However we started the game very positively and played to our strengths, getting the ball wide and attacking down the flanks.  We had many excellent performances with some players playing in new positions and they adapted to them very well.  A very pleasing start to the year and we can now concentrate on Leeds this weekend on the back of a great result”.