Newcastle United Women were unbeaten in seven as they approached their latest match against Nottingham Forest.
The lasses had received confirmation from the league during the week, that Emily Murphy’s strike in the 1-1 draw at Sunderland had been wrongly disallowed, depriving United of two valuable points.
Kaitlyn Torpey has been named in the Australia squad ahead of this month’s FIFA Series 2026 double-header in Kenya. The Matildas face Malawi at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Saturday 11 April with the winner facing either Kenya or India on Wednesday 15 April. While Lois Joel has been included in the Wales squad ahead of two World Cup qualifying fixtures against Albania.
Sunday’s game at Gateshead International Stadium had plenty of family oriented events.
There was a fancy dress competition, an Easter Egg Hunt with 200 eggs given away thanks to club sponsor Fenwick and live music courtesy of Howay Again who were pitchside prior to kick off.
Newcastle manager Tanya Oxtoby made three changes to her line up from the derby match the previous weekend.
With Kaitlyn Torpey, Oona Sevenius and Morgan Gautrat all starting in place of Jemma Purfield, Molly Pike and Shania Hayles. Purfield in particular was unlucky to lose her place after a series of strong performances in recent games.
Photo by Adam Mackman via The Mag
Match Report
Despite having to cope with strong winds for the second game in a row, Newcastle were able to generate two early chances on goal. One of which saw Jordan Nobbs try her luck from 25 years out which saw Forest goalie Emily Batty have to scramble back onto her line as the ball only narrowly cleared the crossbar.
But it would be Forest who went ahead soon after when Alana Murphy capitalised on a rare error from Newcastle goalie Anna Tamminen to net her first goal for the East Midlands side.
Newcastle were then left frustrated as Forest got players behind the ball, and when the away side did push forward, Leanne Kiernan who is on loan from Liverpool was causing no end of problems for United down their left hand side. But they nearly went in level at the break when Forest failed to deal with a cross into the area. Gautrat took one touch to steady herself after being picked out in the centre and fired a great shot which was heading into the net until Batty recovered well to palm it over the bar from point blank range.
The game itself was marred by a series of bad calls by the officials with some bordering on ridiculous! But despite that the Lasses dominated the second half with Forest rarely leaving their box, often going down for a stoppage in play for treatment, something which would see 10 additional minutes added to the game, but more of that in a moment.
Emma Kelly almost levelled when she let fly with a low effort around the hour mark after latching onto a Nobbs lay off, but her shot was blocked before reaching Batty. Then Nobbs tried to chip Batty but the Forest goalie did well to get back onto her line once again.
Next to try her luck was Swedish substitute Emilia Larsson who collected the ball in the final third before advancing towards goal and firing from the edge of the box, forcing Batty into a diving save around the post.
With ten minutes then showing on the board to be added, Emily Murphy then laid the ball off to Nobbs who fired into the net from inside the area, with Batty this time powerless to save it.
With the thunderous equaliser bringing the Lasses back level and 10 added minutes left to play (or so we thought) everyone in the Stadium was confident of a home win. But before Forest could kick off, the linesman on the far side stumbled over his own flag and appeared to pull something in his leg. Unable to continue there was then a lengthy delay of around seven minutes before the fourth official changed into match attire to take over.
However, that delay in restarting the action killed any momentum the goal brought, before insult was quite literally added to injury when the referee blew his whistle a good two minutes sooner than the allotted ten. With that the game ended even, questions being asked as to why a women’s second tier game was being officiated by local non-league officials rather than more competent ones, particularly given the shortage of men’s games this weekend.
Tanya Oxtoby: “I’ve always said that we’re on a journey, and it’s just about trying to find that consistency because at times, we’ve had some good spells and results, but there have also been times when we’ve not been at our best.”
Newcastle United: Anna Tamminen, Charlotte Wardlaw (Demi Stokes 75), Jordan Nobbs, Morgan Gautrat (Molly Pike 86), Emma Kelly (Lois Joel 86), Freya Gregory (Beth Lumsden 59), Deanna Cooper, Kaitlyn Torpey, Oona Sevenius (Emilia Larsson 75), Aoife Mannion (c), Emily Murphy.
Subs not used: Hannah Hawkins, Jemma Purfield, Shania Hayles, Małgorzata Grec.
Nottingham Forest: Emily Batty, Cerys Brown, Kirsty Smith, Chloe Mustaki, Ebba Hed, Rachel Rowe (Tove Almqvist 71, Amy Rodgers, Alana Murphy, Leanne Kiernan (Deanne Rose 85), Joy Omewa (Aimee Claypole 57, Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah (Charlie Wellings 85).
Subs not used: Georgie Ferguson, Nat Johnson, Hollie Olding, Mollie Green, Freya Thomas.
Where that leaves Newcastle United Women
Newcastle remain fourth in the table on 33 points, with automatic promotion now impossible, as United are eight points behind joint leaders Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic with only two games remaining.
The team that finishes third will go into an all or nothing promotion play-off against the team that ends up bottom of the top tier. Palace are in third, five points ahead of Newcastle in fourth and with a goal difference of -12 compared to Newcastle’s -9. So the Lasses now hoping for a miracle, needing to win both of their remaining games and hope Palace collapse.
What’s coming up
We now head into a three week break for the final batch of international fixtures. WSL 2 action returns on Sunday 26th April at Ashton Gate when Newcastle United Women visit Bristol City, before bringing the curtain down on the 2025-26 campaign the following Saturday at home to Durham.