Women. 'We came out fighting from the very first minute,' says scorer Sibley

Isabella Sibley
Published
2 hours ago
Team
Women
Read time
4 min

After netting her first goal for Newcastle United Women on Sunday, Isabella Sibley was keen to highlight the hard work of every squad member.

Aaron Hindhaugh
Written by

Sibley secured all three points for United against Birmingham City Women on Sunday after she added to Shania Hayles' first-half strike at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

The on-loan Crystal Palace Women winger was visibly delighted to get off the mark in black and white, but preferred to shine the spotlight light on her team-mates when speaking post-match.

"I'm very happy to get my first goal, but at the end of the day it's all about the three points," she told newcastleunited.com after the Magpies beat the Women's Championship leaders.

"Beth (Lumsden) was just magic today, she did so well both on and off the ball. She took her shot, it came back out off the crossbar and I just thought that this could be my chance and luckily enough, it got over the line."

Sibley and her colleagues had plenty of time to reflect over the international break on the 3-3 draw against Charlton Athletic Women last time out, with a lot of hard work being put in behind the scenes in the meantime.

And while the Uxbridge-born winger wasn't in the starting lineup against Birmingham, she insists her mentality never changes.

"My mindset is always the same whether I'm starting or coming off the bench," Sibley added. "I just want to do myself proud and work hard for this club.

"We had a good week in training and a good build-up heading into the game. We came out fighting from the very first minute and it was a great performance from every single individual."

United came under a considerable amount of pressure in the second half as Birmingham struck the woodwork three times, but resolute defending and teamwork were enough to secure the win.

Sibley knows Newcastle are in a stretch of difficult fixtures both home and away in the league, but was left buoyed by how they showed both sides of their game on Sunday.

"You saw in the first half that we were the team enjoying most of the possession," United's number 20 admitted.

"We were creating chances and offered that attacking threat, but we can also play really well out of possession and put our bodies on the line like we did in the second half.

"We know that we can do both sides of the game well and that's what you need to be competitive in this league.

"We've had some really tough games against both Charlton and Birmingham. Now we head into two more tough league games, but we go into every match with the same mindset: we want to pick up three points."

Newcastle United Women's next home match sees them return to St. James' Park to take on Southampton Women in the Women's Championship on Sunday, 17th November (kick-off 2pm BST). Tickets are on sale now from book.newcastleunited.com.

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