A Frustrating Day At The Office… – Game 09 – Sunderland – Away League

On Saturday 25 January Bootham Ladies travelled north for the second time this season to face Sunderland in their first game of 2025. Knowing they needed to win to keep their slim chances of promotion alive, the squad was in high spirits for a good performance.
With captain Ellie Whittaker nursing a slight injury, Jess Baker took charge for her first game, and with Jess Barnes the only other playing missing, Bootham were at near full strength.
The starting 5 were Charlotte Broad, Nikki Brown, Rowan Treagus, Allegra Sellschop-Evans (GK) and Natasha Eustance. On the bench were Jess Baker (C), Ruby Shaw, Ava Worthy, Heather Smith, Kim Samson and Katie Samson (GK).

1st Half
Bootham could have been ahead within the first 10 seconds when Eustance feed Brown, but her shot was saved. Sunderland took the lead from a long range shot but Bootham equalised when Brown feed Eustance in the centre and she finished from in front. Bootham looked for that second goal but got hit twice on the break by the hosts. Again, Bootham pressured the Sunderland goal but could beat the keeper. Chances came and went for Bootham, but they couldn’t get the goals their play deserved.
Half Time – Sunderland 3 – 1 Bootham

2nd Half
Bootham knew they had to get the first goal of the second half but again the Sunderland goalkeeper stood up to everything that was thrown at her. Mistakes and just bad luck cost Bootham as Sunderland scored goal after goal to race in to a 10-1 lead. The last 90 seconds saw Bootham finally make their play and pressure show. First Eustance smashed home from Browns’ saved shot, next Brown score after a good move and final Brown scored her second smartly from a corner in the dying seconds.
Full Time – Sunderland 10 – 4 Bootham
Coach Chris spoke to us after the game, and said, ‘Well that was a very strange game. For the first 10 minutes we looked very comfortable and were able to play through Sunderland at ease. Some of our build up play was as good as anything we have played all season. We knew they would play long and direct and for the first half we dealt with it well. I am not quite sure what happened second half, we stopped getting pressure on the ball, and allowed them to shoot from range, and they punished us with that.
‘I have watched the game a couple of times and apart from a few individual errors, getting caught with the ball and playing too slow, I honestly can’t see what we did wrong. The scoreline really does flatter Sunderland. Perhaps it is because we haven’t played since mid-December and our finishing was a bit rusty, and that is something we will have to look at going forward’
He finished by saying, ‘That result has put us out of any chance of getting promoted, so we now must look at improving our game, playing some good futsal over the next few weeks and enjoying the end of the season. We are still in the cup, with the possibility of drawing a Tier 1 side, who we would love to play at home. We are at home to Warrington on Saturday, a game we know we can do well in, so we lick our wounds and come back stronger.’
Player of the Match as chosen by captain Ellie and vice-captain Jess was Natasha Eustance – she was a constant thorn in the side of Sunderland today, and never stopped trying, scoring early and getting a second goal very late on. Not our day but still a top performance from Nat.

A few images from Saturdays game:








