Everton Ladies draw away at Sunderland 1-1

The last time these two teams met was on a snowy day in December and Everton crushed Sunderland at home 5-1. On Wednesday night, the Blues played the Vixens away and came away with just one point.

Taylor Hinds got her first start since joining the squad from Arsenal and Lizzie Durack started in goal. Elise Hughes also got some minutes in at the end of the game.

Captain Dan Turner scored in the beginning of the second half off of a cross from Chloe Kelly. The defender is currently on a goal streak, building on her goal in the last game against Durham that the Blue Girls won 6-1.

Unfortunately, Sunderland scored off of a corner just a few minutes later, with manager Andy Spence telling everton.com that he considered Sunderland’s goal a “fluke”:

“Their goal was a fluke, there’s no other way of describing it, but it seemed like it was coming. They had a number of shots and set plays. We are disappointed overall but a point is not the worst result ever.”

Possession was about even but Sunderland had four shots on goal while Everton had two. Everton remains in 8th place in the WSL after that result.

The Blues have two weeks to prepare before their semi-final FA Cup game against Arsenal on April 15th, which will be streamed online at BBC Sport and on TV on the BBC red button.

Meanwhile, Gabby George has received another England call up for their World Cup qualifying games in early April. She faces her teammates Angharad James and Elise Hughes on April 6th, who have been called up for Wales. Siri Worm has received a call up to Netherlands.

Spence told everton.com that the international schedule does affect the team’s preparations for the FA Cup game:

“We haven’t got a full squad until three days before the Cup game, which is part of the schedule. We have to accept that but it will be the same for Arsenal. We need to prepare everyone, be ready and when the internationals come back make sure they understand how to win the game against Arsenal and focus on that.”

Turner told the WSL website that Everton are up for the challenge:

”We know Arsenal will be tough. We’ve played them twice in the league this year and they’ve beaten us twice, but we competed in both of those games. That’s shown us that we can compete against the top teams in the country so we’ll go into that game with every confidence that we can win it.”