Southampton 1-1 Durham

• Silverlake Stadium, Eastleigh
• Sunday 16th November 2025
• Attendance: 1320

Southampton 1

• Primus (52)

Durham 1

• Hepple (10)

Fifth-placed Southampton welcomed 10th-placed Durham to Eastleigh’s Silverlake stadium with 3 points between the two sides.

Both teams started full of attacking intent. On three minutes, Aimee Palmer found Brazil racing down the Saints’ right wing. Brazil whipped in a beautiful cross which found Atalanta Primus rushing into the six-yard box. Primus made good contact with the ball, but struck the ball straight at the keeper. The ball was half cleared to Edwards at the top of the box, but her shot was blocked.

Aimee Palmer picked up an early yellow card for a professional foul on Molly Lambert midway inside Southampton’s half. Maybe that was on her mind a few minutes later when she played a short back pass to Ellie Hack, who was alone on the edge of the penalty box. It was a real hospital pass as Durham forward Hepple was ready to press. Under pressure, Hack played an even worse back pass to the keeper, which Hepple got to first and calmly rolled past Stenson before she had a chance to get near the ball. Saints 0 Durham 1.

In the 14th minute, Ellie Hack dived in for a header near the centre circle. She got up, but a minute later the referee stopped the game, and the physios came on and went through the concussion protocols before allowing Hack to continue.

Both teams were getting their fair share of attacks. Durham liked to pass the ball around before making their move, while Southampton looked to convert possession into an attack as soon as possible. One attack saw Collet push over Lambert near the Saints’ right-hand corner flag. The resulting free kick was met by Wilson beyond the far post, who headed into the side netting. The goal kick was played to a Durham player; Durham strung together a series of passes ending with Hepple laying the ball off for the on-rushing Lambert. Lambert headed for goal, but was bravely met by Fran Stenson, who got a hand to Lambert’s chip. The resulting corner was comfortably punched away by the near post.

Both teams seemed to prefer the wings as attacking avenues. Saints’ closest attempt came when Brazil taunted the full back before whipping in a cross that was met by MacAlonie and a defender at the near post, with the Saints’ player ending in a heap on the ground. Durham’s best effort was a shot over the bar from the top of the box by Lambert after a lay-off from Hepple.

In the 40th minute, Ellie Hack went down off the ball with what looked like a recurrence of her earlier head injury and was replaced by Godard.

• Half Time: Southampton 0-1 Durham

Simon Parker brought on Ferguson for Edwards for the start of the second half. The Saints clearly thought that they were going to get some luck attacking down the right-hand side, and in the 52nd minute, centre back Amy Goddard whipped in a right-wing cross from close to the corner flag, which was met in a busy penalty area by Primus, who steered the ball home with a right-footed volley. Saints 1 Durham 1.

Given that attacking down the wings has just resulted in a goal, one would have thought that the Saints would have been expected to push the ball wide at every opportunity, but the opposite was the case, and both teams looked to move the ball through the centre of the pitch for the rest of the half.

Midway through the half, Simon Parker made a couple of like-for-like substitutions, Bashford for Palmer and Mott for Megan Collet, who had just gone down with what looked like a hamstring injury. Both teams kept passing and moving in the middle, but neither team could deliver a quality final ball to beat the opposition’s defence.

The real entertainment for the last 20 minutes was watching Durham’s Beth Hepple, who argued with the referee in the 72nd minute. Even watching replays on YouTube, it was hard to see what had got on her goat. Given the amount of finger-pointing and hands on her hips, I thought that she was lucky not to get a card for dissent. Every under-11’s coach would have subbed her off and told her to calm down and given the “life’s not fair, ref’s aren’t perfect, don’t kick the opposition” talk, but this is adult football and Hepple ran around with a visible sense of rage bubbling under everything she was doing, to be fair to her she made it through the game without picking up a card.

Southampton had chances from a couple of corners late on, with Catriona Sheppard in Durham’s goal doing well to tip the ball away from a crowd of players both times. Other than that, neither team created a chance worth getting out of your seat for.

Full Time: Southampton 1 Durham 1

Teams:

Southampton

• 22 F Stenson
• 19 J Simpson
• 6 T Bourne
• 15 E Hack, (A Goddard 43’)
• 23 M Collet, (M Mott 70’)
• 12 M Edwards, (A Ferguson 46’)
• 8 C Peplow, (A Akpan 93’)
• 66 A Palmer, 🟨 (M Bashford 69’)
• 10 M McAlonie
• 7 E Brazil Sub R Tucker (86’)
• 20 A Primus (capt)

substitutes

• 3 M Mott
• 4 A Akpan
• 5 A Goddard
• 11 A Ferguson
• 14 M Bashford
• 26 R Tucker
• 27 I Watts
• 30 E Pettit
• 35 E Roberts

Durham

• 35 C Sheppard
• 3 L Briggs (Robson 90’+8)
• 20 M Foster
• 5 S. Wilson (c)
• 2 G Ayre
• 7 B Hepple
• 4 T Toland
• 17 Speckmaier
• 8 M Lambert
• 10 H Blake, (A Jones 81’)
• 15 P Pritchard, (L Watson 90’)

substitutes

• 16 G Ede
• 11 A Grant
• 27 A Jones
• 13 A King
• 25 L McFarland
• 6 S Robson
• 9 L Watson
• 19 E Wilson