The WSL2 takes a breather this week for the international break and, with many of the North East clubs' players going off to represent their countries in World Cup qualifiers, our teams are down to bare bones training ready for the next important run of fixtures.

Durham lie in ninth, four points from safety. If you were to just take that at face value, you would be worried but since the turn of the year Adam Furness' side have faced the top three, the bottom club Portsmouth and their local rivals and have made good accounts of themselves, beating Pompey, drawing with Birmingham and coming close against Charlton. Their performances have been very promising and entertaining.

The only concern would be scoring goals or rather enough goals - they should have been three up and home and dry last week in the derby but allowed Sunderland in to ultimately take the three points.

Mollie Lambert, Lucy Watson, Mariana Speckmaier and Leyla McFarland have put the ball away in recent weeks, the latter for her first for the...