Wear-Tyne Derby: Women's teams meet in first competitive match between the sides in Championship

Newcastle and Sunderland's women's team's will face each each other at the Stadium of light this afternoon (13 October), in the first competitive fixture between the two clubs in the Women’s Championship.

The sides met in a pre-season friendly last year, which Sunderland won, but Newcastle have since been promoted to the second tier of women’s football.

The match is set to break an attendance record in the division as more than 14,000 fans are expected.

Speaking ahead of the match, Sunderland midfielder Jenna Dear said she believes the Wear-Tyne derby will be a huge occasion for women’s football in the North East.

She told the PA news agency: “I think it’s massive, it’s great for the north east. It’s been a long time coming, it’s exciting.

“Obviously the girls that are from up here know how big the derby is and how much it means to the north east."

“Just seeing how big the derby is with the men’s game that happened last season, a few of the girls went to watch it. You could see how massive and how much it means to Sunderland fans up here.

“You can take little bits away from that. Obviously not getting too attracted to that and drawn into that, it’s another league game and a must-win game for us.”

Despite the rivalry between the two sides, there is plenty of crossover as some player have played for both teams. They include the Magpies goalkeeper Claudia Moan, who made the move from Sunderland in the summer.

In addition to this, Newcastle head coach Becky Langley was mentored by Sunderland boss Mel Reay as a young coach.

She said: “It’s a special game where you need incredible focus on what your process is and what your job role is individually.

“But you should have that extra spark, you should have that extra excitement going into such an important fixture for our region.

“The players are professionals, they’re excited about it, a lot of them will be Newcastle fans and their families will have that rivalry.

“The girls are saying, ‘My family don’t want us to get beaten by the Mackems’. But they’re professional, they come to training to do a job and they want three points every weekend.”

The north east have not been represented in the Women’s Super League since Sunderland were relegated to the third tier in 2018 after being denied a place in the top two divisions when the women’s pyramid was restructured.

Reay, however, hopes having three strong Championship teams in Sunderland, Newcastle and Durham can be beneficial.

She told a press conference: “I think it’s huge for the area. We’re not quite WSL standard all three teams, but we’re strong Championship teams.

“It’s important to have sustainability within the area so players in the pathway can have an exit route into becoming professional footballers.

“As time goes on we want to progress and be higher up. If we could get into the WSL in the future then that’s great for the area because it brings a lot of revenue into the city.”

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