Match Report: Stoke City Women 0-2 Sunderland Ladies - Promotion favourites SAFC win again!

Two late screamers from substitute Neve Herron secured all three points for Sunderland Ladies in their WPL Premier League North top of the table clash at Stoke City Women.

In a close fought game of few chances, it was the introduction of the England youth international that would win it for Sunderland, her late brace securing Sunderland a six point cushion at the top of the league.

The Black Cats started the stronger, but it was Stoke’s Hollie Gibson that should have put her team in the lead on 15, spooning over the bar, as third placed Stoke took the game to the Black Cats.

Captain Keira Ramshaw almost blasted Sunderland ahead halfway through the first 45, but her excellent 20 yard drive was pushed wide by the Potters’ Charlotte Clarke.

The industrious Maria Farrugia missed a golden opportunity to put the Lasses into the lead, but somehow skewed wide from three yards out, but thankfully Herron would spare her blushes late on.

In a tentative second-half, with both sides cancelling one another out, it was the introduction of full back Herron that would the landscape of the match.

The 16-year-old hitting an astonishing right-footed 25-yard drive over the head of Clarke 15 minutes from time, before she repeated the trick with an almost identical strike in stoppage time, sealing all three points for Mel Reay’s side, as their unbeaten run moved into double figures.