On Saturday 21 September, Bootham Ladies started their 2024/25 Tier 2 North league campaign with a home game against Sunderland at St John’s University. Last season Sunderland was a Tier 1 side before they dropped out of the league, so Bootham knew it would be a very hard opening match.

The line-up included summer signings Izabella Fernades and Harriet Chadwick, and there was a league debut for academy graduate Megan Gration.

The starting 5 were Ellie Whittaker, Jess Barnes, Jess Baker, Ruby Shaw and Allegra Sellschop-Evans. On the bench were Kim Samson, Heather Smith, Ava Worthy, Isabella Fernandes, Natasha Eustance, Harriet Chadwick and Megan Gration.

1st Half

Bootham had the worst possible start when they conceded with the first minute. Shaw hit the post from a quick break, before shooting narrowly wide from a swift Bootham break. A deflection saw the ball fall to the Sunderland player, who finished from in front to double their lead. Chadwick nearly scored on her debut when she combined smartly with Worthy. Worthy nearly equalised when she turned on the edge of the, but her deflected shot rolled just wide. Bootham scored their first goal of the season when a shot from Smith was saved, and the ball bounced up for Fernandes headed home from close range. Bootham nearly equalised on the stroke of half-time when great work from Smith, saw her pas put Barnes 1v1 against the goalkeeper but the shot was saved.

Half Time – Bootham Ladies 1 – 2 Sunderland

2nd Half

Bootham started on the front foot and nearly equaliser straight from the kick off. Whittaker’s cross was met perfectly by Eustance, but her shot came back off the post. Almost immediately Bootham did equalise, when a smart move involving Whittaker and Eustance, saw Shaw run through and lift the ball smartly over the advancing goalkeeper. Sunderland scored 2 goals from mistakes from Bootham players, before they added their sixth from a sharp finish. Bootham did finish on a high with arguably the best goal of the game. Eustance intercepted a corner, and swapped passes with Barnes, before feeding Shaw in the corner, and her first time cross was met by player of the match Barnes.

Full Time – Bootham Ladies 4 – 6 Sunderland

After the game a frustrated Coach Chris spoke to us, he said, ‘I think when you watch that back it was never a 6-4 game, we played well enough to get something out of the game. Credit to Sunderland for the way they played, they pressed very well and took their chances when they fell. Individual errors cost us badly today, and Sunderland punished us for them.’

On the debuts he said, ‘I am please for Izabella, she had to wait a long time to play for the ladies and to score on your debut makes it even better. Harriet will only get better as she gets used to the game, and she showed today she has a goal threat in her. Heather, Ava and Ruby all looked sharp, and I know they will just get stronger as the season goes on. Allegra made some good stops when we needed her, it just wasn’t her day.’

Final word was for Megan on her debut, she said, ‘Megan is another one of our academy graduates and we gave her a few minutes at the end, and when the ball hit her in the face, I feared the worse, but she just shrugged it off and carried on. She will get more and minutes as the season goes on, and I know she won’t let us down.

Player of the Match as sponsored by the Corner Grill House was Jess Barnes – she continued her pre-season form with a dominate display and scored arguably the goal of the game.

Here are some more images from the game: