Women: Sunderland Preview - Mar 27

The Golden Girls will travel to Sunderland AFC Ladies this Sunday (March 27), looking to make it back-to-back wins in the FA Women’s Championship.

Last weekend saw the Hornets perform brilliantly to defeat London City Lionesses at Vicarage Road, and the team will now be looking to build on that.

Watford and Sunderland were evenly matched back in November, with the game finishing in a 1-1 draw. If you’re not heading to the north east, you can watch this match-up for free, live on the FA Player.

Views from the Joint Head Coach

While the mood inside the camp has always been of an upbeat nature, that’s certainly been the case this week after a fantastic display last time out.

“The spirit amongst all of the girls has been really high and positive again this week, especially going in off the win from the weekend against a strong London City side,” Laura Dyer told watfordfc.com.

“It has definitely helped the girls be hungry for the three points, it’s not just getting them last weekend, it’s continuing that winning feeling.

“You could certainly tell within the second half of the game last Sunday and it’s been shown throughout, there’s more belief in the camp. Everyone’s confident to get on the ball and confident in what we’re doing.

“I think that goes down to understanding what we’re doing tactically as well which helps, and now that they’re seeing the rewards from it as well, it can only boost them.”

It’s the longest trip of the season this weekend, which means it’ll be another overnight stay for the team in preparation for the match.

“An overnight stay is something that all teams look forward to,” revealed Dyer. “It’s a chance for teams to build a stronger bond, more of a togetherness.

“I think that the mindset the girls have been in throughout the whole season to be fair, has shown that they can be together as a group.

“Having more of that time with the travel up, being in and around each other where we stay, it gives them that time to go and enjoy being part of this group and part of what we can achieve, so definitely looking forward to the overnight stay.”

The main focus though will be on the job at hand on Sunday. Sunderland, like Watford, performed well last time out, and Dyer is expecting a good encounter.

“It’s going to be a very competitive game at the weekend,” she explained. “Sunderland picked up the three points against Sheffield United last weekend and that shows it’s not going to be a game where we can take our foot off the gas.

“We enjoyed that winning feeling [v London City] and I think you saw at the end of the game how much it meant to everyone, and that’s something we don’t just want to let go.

“We want to keep striving, we want to push on, finish as high as we can with as many points as we can. That’s something that the girls will definitely not hold back on.

“We’re going to give it our all on Sunday and we’re going to go out there to get them three points.”

Opposition

It’s safe to say that Sunderland AFC Ladies have had a big influence on women’s football in this country, with several of their former players going on to play at international level – including some marquee names.

They’re a side that Watford have enjoyed some intriguing battles with over the years, in particular back in 2012/13, with two 2-2 draws as they competed towards the top of the table.

That was during the middle of a period of dominance by Sunderland. Having not been awarded a place in the inaugural Women’s Super League (2011), the Lady Black Cats would go on to win four consecutive league titles, although the possibility of promotion was not on offer for most of them.

Having won the newly formed FA WSL 2 in 2014, they were finally back in the top tier for 2015. They stayed there for four years and were competitive throughout, however off-the-field decisions would again decide their fate, seeing the team demoted a couple of divisions for 2018/19.

It looked like they would earn promotion to the FA Women’s Championship at the second attempt, but the pandemic intervened. With the same happening the following season, they, along with Watford, were then awarded a place in the Championship via upward movement.

Sunderland currently lie in ninth place, with a 5-4-9 record after 18 games. While it’s certainly respectable for their first year back at this level, at the start, it seemed that things would go even better.

They were unbeaten in their first four matches, taking eight points out of a possible 12, only conceding twice in that span too. It was a struggle in the league after that though, only winning one of their next 11. Scoring goals was arguably their biggest problem, only netting more than once in a match a single time during that period.

Things have looked on the up recently, however. Sunderland have won two of their last three, which included an impressive 4-1 win away at in-form Sheffield United last time out.

Emily Scarr was on the scoresheet twice in that one, and she’s now her club’s top scorer in the competition with four goals. There’s certainly an element of consistency to the squad that boasts a good mix of youth and experience, with 10 players having featured in at least 16 of the 18 Championship matches.