Nikita Parris’ 20th minute header was enough to earn Manchester City Women their first league win of the season. City, who will be chasing the WSL1 title this year, were made to work hard by a Sunderland side still brimming with confidence fresh off the back of an opening night victory at champions Liverpool.
Local girl Jill Scott was on hand to grab the assist, flicking on Christiansen’s corner at the near post for Parris – on loan from Everton Ladies – to nod into an empty net. City might have doubled their advantage moments later, Rachel Laws in the Sunderland goal blocking the oncoming Sarah Wiltshire.
Wiltshire, who started in place of Natasha Flint, looked dangerous in the opening exchanges, testing the pace of Sunderland full back Abby Holmes. City made four changes from Sunday’s draw at Birmingham; Brooks replaced the suspended Bardsley, meanwhile McManus and Radtke started ahead of Lipman and Walsh.
Despite missing key names, most notably captain Steph Houghton through injury, the City side was still packed with talent. Three England internationals combined on 39 minutes to carve out an excellent chance for the visitors, Demi Stokes found Scott with room, who picked out the run of Toni Duggan whose prodded effort rolled agonisingly wide.
Beth Mead, who starred in the host’s shock win a week ago, was the main danger for Sunderland once more. The young striker gave the Blue’s defence plenty to think about but was unable to create any real assaults on Brook’s goal.
The Lady Black Cats proved again they have more than what it takes to compete in WSL1 following last season’s promotion. Spurred on by an impressive crowd of 1,433 at the Hetton Centre, Carlton Fairweather’s side looked solid at the back and often threatened on the counter attack.
Speaking after the game, Sunderland captain Steph Bannon expressed her pride. “It was an encouraging performance. It’s not the result we wanted but the fact we’re disappointed to get beat 1-0 by Man City shows how far we’ve come”.
Meanwhile for Manchester City the win marked their improvement, having lost their opening two matches of last year’s campaign. City boss Nick Cushing described his delight post-match saying: “We said it was a must-win game for us and we’ve done it, so we’re really pleased.”
