FLAMES EDGE SEFTON IN SEASON OPENER
Sunderland Ladies kicked off their Women’s Championship North Two 2017/18 season with a narrow 8-7 home victory over Sefton.
The Flames had several players starting in their debut season with the team, but there were some missing due to injuries and the Great North Run.
Sunderland faced further problems early on when they lost full-back Helen Jones to a bloody nose, forcing a three quarters reshuffle.
Despite the reshuffle, the Flames had the better of possession in the opening half, but it was Sefton who went ahead.
Sefton took their one opportunity well, exploiting the wider channels to ride the tackles to open the scoring, which was converted.
The Flames bounced back, continuing to keep possession well going forward.
One particularly solid shove earned the team a penalty which Saskia Ryan-Munden wasted no time in seizing on and drove over the line.
Unfortunately, in the process of attempting to stop the try, two Sefton players suffered a clash of heads resulting in a lengthy pause.
After a short delay, Kirsty Paterson was finally able to attempt the conversion, but it was off the mark.
In attack, the forwards worked well, the backs also gained great yards, but the support play was slow to respond at times.
This allowed Sefton chances to reclaim possession, but luckily for Sunderland, their discipline cost them.
The referee repeatedly penalised the visitors for failing to release the tackled player before attempting to reclaim the ball.
One such penalty found itself within the range of Suzanne Falconer’s boot, and she slotted it home to give the Flames a single point lead.
From there, the weather set in and the Flames also dug in, and quite literally ground out the win, with more back and forth possession, until the final whistle blew.
The team will need to improve their basic skills ahead of the next fixture a week on Sunday, which is a difficult away trip to Birkenhead.