The hosts survive a late scare from Durham, as Durham fail to find an equaliser late on.

Starting on the back foot for the opening 15, as Durham looked to figure out United’s game plan, it was the visitors that came closest to opening the scoring early on. Firing a venomous effort from 25 yards, Tyler Toland, fresh back from international duties, demanded an excellent save from the opposition’s goalkeeper to maintain the deadlock.

Following a further ten minutes of pressure from the hosts, Durham found their next big chance of opening the scoring. Driving forwards from her own half, Abbey Jones’ deflected, long ranged effort seemed to wrong-foot United’s Sian Rogers, though the effort was palmed away to safety.

Heading towards the break, it seemed increasingly likely that a goal was on the way, with either side aggressively pushing for the opener, though captain fantastic Sarah Wilson seemed very opposed to Sheffield United being the side to do so. Left one on one with Katriona Sheppard following a rapid counter-attacking play, Wilson raced back with power, timing an outstanding sliding tackle to steal the ball away from the feet of United striker Any Andrews just milliseconds before she could pull the trigger.

Unfortunately, this tackle was in vein. With a looped ball in following an initially cleared corner routine, the second ball was met by an unmarked Sheffield United attacker. Last defender Lauren Briggs was left to a desperate last-ditch goal-line clearance attempt, though the ball found its way into the net regardless for the hosts’ opener.

Directly after the half time break, Durham’s fortunes would only worsen. Conceding an unfortunate penalty in the 48th minute, the Sheffield number 10 Devlin converted to double the deficit.

It seemed the afternoon worsened even further soon later, though the hosts, having thought they had netted a third, were left disappointed by the offside flag.

Late on, Durham were handed a lifeline. Conceding a poor penalty in the 77th penalty, a dire challenge from Jess Reavill saw Lucy Watson felled in the box, and the WSL 2’s top goalscorer Beth Hepple had no trouble converting to keep Durham’s hopes alive.

Despite Durham’s late dominance, Sheffield United’s defence stood firm, shutting out the remaining attacks, with Molly Lambert heading wide in the dying seconds to seal the afternoon off.

Durham: Sheppard, Ayre (McFarland 86′), Briggs (Watson 72′), Toland, S Wilson, Hepple, Lambert, Salicki, Pritchard (Blake 72′), Ede (Speckmaier 45′), Jones (Foster 45′)

Unused subs: King, Robson, Grant, E Wilson

Goals: (Hepple 77′)

Like this:

Like Loading…