Fourth meets fifth at Meadow Lane on Wednesday night as Sunderland travel to Notts County.
Both sides have had mixed-fortunes in their respective campaigns so far – County have notched one win, two draws and a loss, compared to the visitors two victories and two defeats.
The Lady Pies bagged their first three points of the season in their last game, away to bottom of the table Bristol Academy, emerging as 5-2 victors. In contrast the Lady Black Cats come in to this fixture on the back of a disappointing 4-1 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.
The North-East side will be keen to make amends for the weekend’s performance but striker Beth Mead acknowledges that it won’t be easy with the strong contingent of England internationals that County possess:
“Notts County are a really good side and they’ve got a lot of new players in, a lot of England internationals as well,” she said.
“Ellen White, Laura Bassett and some of the other players in the squad are all quality players so we’ll have to be wary of that.
“We’ve got to put the Arsenal game behind us and now move on to the next game and make sure we re-group and prepare properly for it and try and get something out of the game.”
The Midlands side – who will compete in an FA Cup semi-final at the weekend – will be looking to build on their win against Bristol, having begun the season with title-aspirations.
Sunderland will be without the suspended Abby Holmes after she was sent off in the defeat at Arsenal, and will give late fitness checks to Keira Ramshaw and Rachel Furness after the pair came off against the Gunners due to illness and injury respectively.
