PROMOTION CHARGE ON IF CATS CAN CLAW A WIN
DURHAM manager Lee Sanders will send his team out at Everton today aiming for a victory to keep the Wildcats firmly in the Super League 2 promotion race.
Beating the pre-season favourites would leapfrog Durham above the Toffees into third place, five points behind leaders Yeovil Town but with a game in hand.
And, with a third of the campaign remaining, it would be ‘game on’ as the Wildcats chase what would be widely considered a surprise elevation to the top flight.
In WSL 2’s two seasons to date, Sanders’ team have finished sixth and seventh, so they were somewhat under the radar at the start of the current campaign.
But the manager said: “As we went into the season, there was a feeling around the club that we could do better this year than in the last two.
“We set ourselves the target of a top-four finish, and, after hitting the ground running with four wins in our first five league games, the confidence grew. “We’ve dropped a few
points since then, including two defeats by Yeovil, but our form has remained good and I’m happy with the season so far. “Top four is still the aim, but if we were to get ourselves in a position much closer to the top of the table we would re-assess and push on from there.” Durham’s promotion potential will be tested to the full at Everton, admits Sanders, in what will be the first meeting of the two teams this season. The Wildcats boss said: “I know (Everton manager) Andy Spence well and I’m pleased he’s back in charge after a spell away from the first team. “His teams play very good football and they’re always packed with young talent. This year, he’s added experience to his squad with some good recruitment. “We know it’s going to be a tough game down there, but we’ll go out looking for a win that can put us in an excellent position in the table.” If Sanders’ team are to collect all three points, they will probably have to be sharper in front of goal than they have been for much of the season to date. Only the bottom three sides have hit fewer goals than Durham’s tally of 17, six of those strikes coming from England Under-19 midfielder Beth Hepple. “We should have scored a lot more goals than we have so far,” said Sanders. “Our last game against Watford was a case in point. “We won 3-0, but we had another ten clear-cut chances. “That was frustrating, but you get the same number of points whether you win 10-0 or 10. “One of the problems in terms of goalscoring has been missing (striker) Nicky Gears, who we lost early on in the season through an ACL injury. “I’m not overly concerned, because we are continuing to create chances and, hopefully, the goals will start to flow after the three we got last time out.”