Sometimes in life you have to stop, take a deep breath and reflect on what you’ve achieved and how far you’ve come. When the final whistle blew at Kingston Park last Sunday it meant a 3 – 3 home draw for NUFC Women against Charlton Athletic Women.
The overriding feeling when the referee blew for no side was one of sheer frustration and disappointment. After all, with Wor Lasses 3 – 1 up with two minutes of injury time and conceding twice meant it felt like two points dropped rather than a point gained.
In that moment it felt more like a loss than a draw. United had put in a great shift for 90 + 3 minutes and looked to be heading for a significant win over a Championship contending rival.
But a late, late, late Athletic showing saw The Londoners face a far more pleasant long journey home than it had looked likely before the astonishing comeback. But as I say, perhaps United need to stop, breathe and reflect.
Last season when Becky Langley’s side were going for promotion so were Charlton. At the end of the season as we know Newcastle achieved their goal.
Charlton on the other hand didn’t failing just short as Crystal Palace edged The Championship by a single point to take their place in the promised land of the Women’s Super League.
It meant that the two sides could come together and face each other in the Championship last Sunday. Charlton strode into Kingston Park having made a great start to their campaign.
They led the League early although a draw against Sunderland and a defeat at London City Lionesses had meant they’d been replaced at the top by Birmingham. Incidentally the defeat at London City had been their first reversal away from home for 539 days!
So, perhaps at the end of the day, reflecting positively was and probably is a better way to look at things for Becky Langley and her players. Of course their attention would be focused on those last three minutes but they also need to look at the other 93.
Those minutes had shown Langley that her team need fear no-one in this division. A win at The Stadium of Light in the Tyne-Wear derby against an experienced Championship side in Sunderland had probably already shown that.
This 3 – 3 draw against Charlton merely confirmed how tough the division is and will be going forward. Before the season started Newcastle knew it wasn’t going to be plain sailing. That’s why they made nine new signings to consolidate their squad.
It was also to ensure they had the strength in depth to cope with the demands of the huge step-up. In all honesty the realists amongst the Newcastle faithful were not expecting them to drive straight through the Championship.
No, the talk was about consolidation and finding their feet whilst ensuring that they found out exactly what it might take at this level to progress again. That in reality is still the feeling.
However, there is also a little bit more than that after an opening that has only seen United lose once and that in a home loss to Durham, a game they pretty much dominated from start to finish.
The expectations now are perhaps that it’s still going to be tough but perhaps United have already proven they cand match the best in this division and have as good a chance as any to progress and make inroads at the top of the table.
All conjecture of course and their next game will be a massive test of their ambition as they travel to St. Andrews to take on the highly impressive League leaders Birmingham City. A win or even a draw there would certainly be a result worth savouring.
For the record on Sunday the opening goal of the game for United came on 5 minutes with their first attack of the game. Charlotte Potts long ball down the left flicked on by Shania Hayles into the path of Amy Andrews who sped away from the defence.
Andrews getting almost to the byline before cutting the ball back across the Charlton six-yard line for Hayles who had continued her run to side-foot home past the stranded Jess Gray.
On 14 minutes Hayles and United doubled their lead. This time Amber-Keegan Stobbs won a ball superbly in the centre circle before splitting the visiting defence wide open with an excellent through ball for Hayles to take into her stride.
The Jamaican International accelerated into the box leaving defenders in her wake before coolly slotting the ball past the advancing Gray to give United a two-nil lead. It should have perhaps been game over and three-nil after only 16 minutes.
Andrews collecting Potts ball down the right superbly then showing great skill and awareness to once again but Hayles clean through on goal but this time Gray made a superb blocking save to deny the United striker a hat-trick.
Two-nil at the break Charlton struck first four minutes after the restart. United failing to clear a corner convincingly and when the ball dropped to Katie Bradley her 14-yard shot took a nick off Hannah Greenwood and beat Claudia Moan’s despairing dive.
Hayles though wasn’t to be denied and on 68 minutes restored Newcastle’s two-goal advantage from the penalty spot after Lois Joel had been fouled by a late tackle inside the box. Hayles side-footing her spot-kick to Gray’s right with the keeper going in the opposite direction.
United looked to be seeing the game out comfortably when Skipper Stobbs was shown a second yellow card and subsequent red for kicking the ball away after conceding a free kick. The FA directives of ‘delaying the game’ being stringently applied by the referee.
Then with the 90 minutes expiring the board went up indicating an additional six minutes of injury time and seemed to give Charlton renewed energy which turned to confidence and determination as they pulled a goal back three minutes into injury time.
Kayleigh Barton getting above Isabella Sibley at the back post to power a header past Moan from a deep corner. The Londoners were now in the ascendency and there was a foreboding atmosphere suddenly amongst the 2,815 Kingston Park crowd.
That atmosphere was confirmed within a minute when a Charlton attack from the left saw the ball fall nicely for Bradley inside the United box and from 12-yards out she drove the equaliser home to crush United’s hopes of moving into the top three.
At the end of the game Becky Langley was more frustrated than disappointed and felt her side had shown a little inexperience when trying to see the game out. Clearly disappointed as well she did though reflect that overall, her side have made an encouraging start to life in the Championship
Perhaps that is shown in the fact that a mere six points separates the top seven in the division. Birmingham having 16 points and Charlton 14. Significantly the five chasing, including Newcastle, all have a game in hand on the top two which could tighten things up even more.
What is significantly clear is that this is going to be a tough division to win and one where every team is capable of winning games and taking points off each other. It all means that it’s going to be a very exciting League to follow over the coming months.
