Sunderland Ladies yesterday welcomed Nottingham Forest to The Hetton Centre, for their opening home fixture, hoping to bounce back from last week’s disappointing defeat to Watford.
However it was not to be. A combination of missed opportunities, and dangerous set plays, meant it was Forest who travelled home with the three points.
A defeat seemed the furthest thing from the home supporters’
minds, as Sunderland flew into the lead after just three minutes of play. Skipper Stephanie Bannon delivered a free kick from thirty
yards, which Natalie Gutteridge diverted back across the face of the goal for Kelly McDougall to rise above several Forest defenders
and powerfully head into the back of the net, to record her first goal of the season, and of the game.
The early lead should have settled the Black Cats, however they failed to press Forest onto the back foot and after youngster Sophie
Halliday forced the Nottingham Keeper into a good, diving save, the visitors drew level on 9 mins. A break away down the right hand
side resulted in Susan Davies beating several defenders to dribble into the eighteen yard box, and finish neatly past Rachael Laws
in the Sunderland goal.
The Wearsider’s woes doubled on eighteen minutes after a Forest corner was converted by new signing
Chloe Foster. However, this sudden turnaround seemed to spur Sunderland on, as they rallied together to create several chances, but
it was to no avail, as a mixture of fine keeping from Clare Wallhead and erratic finishing saw the Black Cats end the half frustrated
and trailing by a single goal.
Half Time ... Sunderland 1 – 2 Nottingham Forest
Sunderland began the second half brightly,
creating chances through clever work from Demi Stokes and Nicola Devine down both flanks, most notably in the sixtieth minute when
a cross from the left side saw Gutteridge come agonisingly close with a header that went the wrong side of the crossbar.
The
move of the match came on sixty-nine minutes when some quick combination play between Staniforth, McDougall, and Gutteridge ended
in a neat lay off from the Sunderland Striker, back into Kelly McDougall’s path, for her to skilfully curl the ball into the net from
eighteen yards.
The game was now wide open and it was evident, with both teams pushing forward, that each side was capable of gaining the three points. Mick Mulhern introduced Jordan Atkinson in place of Nicola Devine to inject more pace into Sunderland’s front three. However to the Wearsider’s despair it was Forest who scored the decisive goal, from yet another corner, as Annabel McKechnie powered a header in off the crossbar from close range in the eighty-fifth minute. Once again the Black Cats pushed on but it was too little too late as the referee blew his whistle to end what was an evenly contested game, in which the quality of finishing proved to be the decisive factor.