David Parker takes his team to the North East as they seek their first win of the WSL season against Carlton Fairweather’s Lady Black Cats before the two month summer break.

Sunderland Ladies

Sunderland Ladies lie in 5th place in the WSL table, two places and three points ahead of Blues Ladies having won twice and lost three times in their opening five games. They come into the game on the back of a heavy 4-2 defeat to Notts County Ladies and are eager to cap the first half of the season with a win.

Sunderland Head Coach Carlton Fairweather is quoted as saying:

“Last season Birmingham came very close to winning the league so we know that this will be another difficult game,” said Fairweather. “We are looking for a strong finish to the first half of the season and like every other team we are aiming to get as many points on the board as possible.”

Blues Ladies

David Parker will know that the issue with his team lies up front – with goals coming at an absolute premium for Blues Ladies. However, he is boosted by the return to fitness of Karen Carney and Kirsty Linnett while Freda Ayisi had the best game in her Birmingham City Ladies career against Bristol Academy.

The key for Blues Ladies will be – as Karen Carney identified after the Bristol Academy game – taking those good individual performances and bringing them together in such a way that the front line link up together properly. With a break of a week and half since their last fixture the squad will have had time to work properly on their plays and they will hope that this translates to the game.

The match kicks off at 6:30pm this evening at the Hetton Centre, in Houghton-le-Spring.

Tags: Freda Ayisi, Karen Carney, Kirsty Linnett