Season comes to an end

University of Sunderland defender Lauren Debney talks about Saloufest, the teams hopes for next season and what the University could do to help the women’s football team in this short interview.

With Sports Tour over and a disappointing season behind them all that is left on the calender for the team is the Sport and Rec Ball and awards night to be held at the Stadium of Light on 23 May. The girls are also planning a “Rugball” match with the university’s women’s rugby team to raise money for charity. The teams will play half a game of football and half a game of rugby in what could end being an intense rivalry but also a bit of fun for a good cause.

Sunderland Girls Head To Salou For Sports Tour

Sunderland University’s women’s football team are heading to Salou to take part in a tournament against other universities from across Britain.

Sunderland Women's football team in Salou

The eight players are among 130 students from the university travelling to Spain to compete in their chosen sport over the Easter holidays.  The sports tour lasts six days with two days of sporting fixtures and is part of the ‘ILoveTour’ experience that gives students the opportunity to travel to Salou, Amsterdam and Rimini to compete against other universities.

The Sunderland girls are looking forward to the competition after their form picked up towards the end of the season.  Lauren Debney who plays in defence for the team says:  “We can’t wait for tour this year, we went last year and did quite well. It’s a good laugh too rather than just being all about the competition.  The travelling is the hard the bit, it’s 30 hours in a coach each way but it’s so worth it.”

Students travel from all over the United Kingdom by coach to take part in the festivals since they began in 2001. A total of 8000 are expected to take part in ‘Saloufest’ this year. Rachael Cook, striker for the team says: “Tour is a great opportunity for the girls to compete against other universities but it gives gives us the chance to get to know everyone better. We came back from tour last year and knew people from the other sports teams so much better as well as our teammates, it’s great for team spirit.”

‘ILoveTour ‘advertises the festival as “the biggest and best university sports festival available to British and Irish students.” Students compete in their sport during the day and enjoy all Salou has to offer at night with clubs and bars working in association with ‘ILoveTour’.

Students from Sunderland University at Saloufest

In recent years however students and the festival have come under fire from the British and Spanish media because of the drunken behaviour on display. Women’s football president Danielle Farrell says: “The press coverage is unfair, we get slaughterd every year but they just pick up on the bad bits, I’ve never seen their cameras at the sporting events, they only film the students at night and even then they concentrate on the ones who are really bad when most of us can go out, have a few drinks and a laugh and not cause any bother.”Last year’s tour in particular attracted a lot of negative press, so much so that the University of Sunderland refused to support the tour despite Sunderland students not being caught up in any controversy last year. This year students have organised the tour themselves and will hope for a fun and safe week.

More information about ‘Saloufest’ and other festivals can be found on www.ilovetour.co.uk

Girls end season on a high

Sunderland University women’s football team ended the season with a 4-4 draw away to the University of York. The result came a week after the girls had recorded their first win of the season, a 4-2 victory over Leeds Metropolitan University at the Academy of Light sparked celebrations from players, coach Gary Bennett and the small crowd who had gathered to watch the last home game of the season. Striker Rachael Cook says: “It’s been a hard season for us, we’ve really struggled this year but the win over Leeds Met was great, everyone was buzzing after it. We went down to York the week after, arrived late, had no time to warm up properly but we fought hard to get the draw. It’s just a pity we found our form late.” Unfortunately it was too late to stop them from being relegated.

University of Sunderland Women's football team 2010/11

It has been a frustrating season for the team, prior to the win over Leeds the girls had lost nine games on the trot. The positive feeling evident at the start of the season was dealt a severe blow in the very first match, an 8-0 defeat at the hands of the University of Leeds. Danni Shutt, who plays in midfield for the team says: “At the first training session we had 23 girls turn up, more than we had last year and they all seemed really enthusiastic about being part of the team. Unfortunately they didn’t all come back, we really only had three or four freshers who regularly turned up for training and games due to university commitments or wanting to play other sports. It was very disappointing, some of the games we were just about managing to get a team together, we were lucky to have a sub or two at times.”

Part of the problem was that so many players left at the end of the previous season having finished their time at university. Striker Amy Walker says: “We had six players leave at the end of last season including our captain, they’d been champions the year before that and formed the core of the team so being honest it was never going to be easy going into this season.”

All the girls can do now is look forward to next season. The Freshers’ Fayre in September will see a big drive to recruit new players and the team will be hoping for a strong squad and aiming for promotion straight away.

Sunderland girls face tough task at Durham

Sunderland University’s women’s football team face Durham University away today in the toughest game of the season so far.

Durham are currently sitting top of the league. They are unbeaten so far this season and with only three games left, including the match today, they will more than likely be promoted.

Sunderland have faced an uphill struggle all season, so far failing to pick up a single point in any of their eight games played. With the girls only being able to train for an hour on Mondy after two weeks without a session and missing a number of players through injury, illness and university committments a win is a big ask.

Match report to follow

Hello world!

Hi everyone! This is a new blog following the fortunes of the University of Sunderland Women’s Football Team who compete in the Northern Conference 2B which falls under the control of British University and College Sport (BUCS).

The team play home games at Sunderland FC’s Academy of Light, the only University team to play their games at the training ground of a Premiership Football Team.

Sunderland University football team are currently at the bottom of their league and face relegation to the Northern Conference 3B.

Northern Conference 2B League Table

Director of Football at the University is former Sunderland FC player Gary Bennett, the manager of the Women’s football team is Matty Lyons.

Keep an eye on this blog for all the info on the team!