Motorists stuck in the slow traffic crawling towards central Sunderland from the A19 on Sunday lunchtime were confronted by flashing electronic roadside signage. It conveyed a single message: ‘Ha’way the Lasses’. A couple of miles further on, the Stadium of Light was hosting the first Women’s Championship Wear-Tyne derby between Sunderland and Newcastle and it seemed tickets priced at £12 for adults and £6 for under-16s had proved quite a draw.
A crowd of 15,387 were in attendance, comfortably eclipsing the 11,137 that turned out to watch Sheffield United take on London City Lionesses two years ago, making it the largest ever attendance at a Women’s Championship game. When, midway through the first half, Newcastle’s wonderfully two-footed Beth Lumsden swivelled away from Jessica Brown and evaded the reach of the helpless home goalkeeper, Demi Lambourne, courtesy of a rising, angled shot, the majority home contingent fell silent.
The backdrop to this derby may have lacked the blaring police sirens, beer fuelled barrages of expletives and van loads of additional constabulary shipped in from neighbouring forces but local pride was still very much at stake. Sunderland supporters could have done without the sight of two of their former players, Demi Stokes and Rachel Furness, an ex-England and current Northern Ireland stalwart respectively, playing key defensive roles for a Newcastle side that has risen two divisions in the three years since the club’s Saudi Arabian led takeover.
The Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is very much on a mission to propel Becky Langley’s side into the top tier Women’s Super League. Whether that is all about sportswashing or a genuine indication of a welcome modernisation of still all too often medieval attitudes towards women in Saudi Arabia remains a matter for debate, but it is undeniably good for women’s football in England.
Politicians struggling to close the north-south divide may have abandoned the phrase “Levelling up” but, in a women’s football context, the phrase remains very much alive among the game’s senior administrators. They are acutely aware that the current imbalance, whereby almost half the WSL teams are situated in London and none located north of the M62, is not healthy, let alone conducive to the league’s long-term growth.
On this evidence, Newcastle looked the likelier side to offer the WSL it’s first north eastern outpost since Sunderland’s demotion two divisions to the third tier on financial grounds in 2018. Although Melanie Reay’s team are now fully supported by the club’s current owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and train alongside Regis Le Bris’s men at their Premier League-standard HQ, the Academy of Light, they cannot quite compete with Langley’s club in the transfer market.
Although Furness was forced off, injured, at half-time, Stokes’s experience of playing for the Lionesses in major tournaments was evident as the impressive left-back helped subdue Reay’s attack in an often tight game. With the dangerous Jamaica forward Shania Hayles, previously with Aston Villa and Bristol City, worrying Sunderland’s rearguard it was no huge surprise when Newcastle doubled their advantage, albeit slightly bizarrely as Lumsden scored her second goal direct from a left-footed, in-swinging, corner.
Significantly, three seasons ago Lumsden, then playing for Oxford United women and working as an estate agent, began training with the men’s senior team and now credits the experience for helping her secure a professional contract at Newcastle.
Reay’s side had time to recover from that defensive calamity but arguably should have won a penalty when Olivia Watt felled Mary McAteer in the box. Perhaps fulled by that perceived injustice they eventually rallied to, deservedly, reduce the deficit as Emily Scarr made it 2-1 following Newcastle’s failure to clear a corner.
Lambourne subsequently saved superbly from Stokes – one of a number of past and present Lionesses including Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead, Steph Houghton, Jordan Nobbs, Jill Scott and Carly Telford who began their careers at Sunderland – but Newcastle had already done enough.
As the final whistle blew and the flock of seagulls that had been hovering for some time finally swooped onto the pitch, Langley’s players were up to sixth, only three points off the top. “It was a very anxious last 15 minutes,” she said. “I think my heart’s still not calmed down. It means a lot.”
