Hayles Brace Seals Newcastle's 3-2 Win Over Portsmouth

Fans at Kingston Park welcomed Newcastle United back to their stadium for the first Championship game of 2025, welcoming Portsmouth Women to the North East. With goals on either side, the game was far from basic with Newcastle winning 3-2 after 2 fabulous goals from Newcastle’s top goal scorer, Shania Hayles.

Newcastle dominated possession for most of the game, with Jasmine McQuade getting the first shot on target at 20 minutes in. New signing Freya Gregory impressed fans with many shots, showing her skills off for the first time in her debut game for the club.

The first goal came from a lovely shot from Shania Hayles, assisted by Gregory, putting the Magpies in the lead. With 7 shots on target throughout, Newcastle’s advantage of being 7th in the league was showing, but unfortunately for them, Portsmouth’s Hannah Poulter was raring to go, making some excellent saves to prevent Newcastle from any further goals.

Just before half time, Newcastle’s Lois Joel attempted to get herself on the scoresheet, but was just wide of the net, leaving them at a 1-0 lead. Shortly before the whistle, Portsmouth managed to get the ball in the back of the net, but it was instantly disallowed for offside.

The second half got off to a disappointing start for Portsmouth, when Shania Hayles doubled Newcastle’s lead. However, this did not stop their determination, with their adrenaline high, which was obvious when Sophie Quirk scored the visitors’ first goal of the game after an impressive corner kick.

Portsmouth’s equaliser came at 65 minutes, with Riva Casley heading it home after another impressive corner. Newcastle did not let this affect them, with vice captain and former Manchester City defender Demi Stokes slotting it in just 5 minutes later. Newcastle refused to give up, despite Shania Hayles aiming for her second hat-trick of the season, but slicing it just too high. 

Despite the string of corners right at the end of the game for Portsmouth, the game ended 3-2 to Newcastle, with an attendance of 3,011 fans. Portsmouth fought hard to get a good result, but Newcastle were the better side throughout with more chances and more possession by 4%.

In the post match press conference, Newcastle manager Becky Langley spoke about the “disappointing” conceded goals, but remained “confident we would get the three points”. Regarding Portsmouth’s goals from set pieces, Becky said:

"Set pieces are a huge part of the game, especially at this level, so we are disappointed. It was a really good goal, a great strike from the opposition, so we are disappointed and we’ll work on that.”