Durham\u00a0vs\u00a0Southampton<\/p>\n
Sunday 6th\u00a0September,\u00a0Maiden Castle Sports Park,\u00a012:00pm\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five of\u00a0the gameweek one\u00a0fixtures take place on Sunday,\u00a0starting with a\u00a0clash\u00a0between Durham and Southampton\u00a0at\u00a0midday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0home\u00a0side had a challenging\u00a02025-2026\u00a0season but\u00a0escaped\u00a0relegation\u00a0after finishing\u00a010th\u00a0in the BWSL2 table.\u00a0Despite this,\u00a0their\u00a00-1 win over Newcastle\u00a0on the final\u00a0day\u00a0may\u00a0give them confidence heading into\u00a0September.\u00a0The\u00a0summer transfer window\u00a0resulted\u00a0in\u00a0significant\u00a0change,\u00a0as\u00a0midfielder\u00a0Mollie Lambert\u00a0departed\u00a0the club.\u00a0The\u00a028-year-old\u00a0was\u00a0Durham\u2019s\u00a0joint second highest\u00a0goalscorer\u00a0last season\u00a0and regularly played the\u00a0full\u00a090 minutes, creating a\u00a0notable absence\u00a0within the\u00a0club. However,\u00a0midfielder Beth Hepple\u00a0remains\u00a0with\u00a0Durham\u00a0following a\u00a0successful\u00a0campaign\u00a0that\u00a0earned\u00a0her a\u00a0spot in the BWSL2 team of the\u00a0season\u00a0\u2013 there is\u00a0plenty of\u00a0talent within their squad\u00a0which\u00a0could\u00a0certainly\u00a0help them\u00a0climb the\u00a0league table\u00a0from\u00a0week\u00a0one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Southampton\u00a0sat fifth in last season\u2019s league\u00a0standings,\u00a0signing off\u00a0with a 0-3 win\u00a0away to\u00a0Nottingham Forest, and will\u00a0likely be\u00a0seeking a spot in the\u00a0top half of the table\u00a0once\u00a0more.\u00a0A key player to look out for\u00a0is attacking midfielder Mary Bashford,\u00a0Southampton\u2019s top goalscorer last season.\u00a0One\u00a0question heading into the\u00a0weekend\u00a0yet to\u00a0be answered\u00a0is who will be\u00a0taking on the captaincy role as former captain\u00a0Atlanta Primus\u00a0departed\u00a0the club\u00a0in June 2026.\u00a0As a\u00a0key\u00a0piece\u00a0to\u00a0Southampton\u2019s\u00a0success,\u00a0it\u00a0will be interesting to see\u00a0which player steps into\u00a0her\u00a0leadership role.\u00a0The\u00a0summer\u00a0transfer window\u00a0saw Welsh international Laura Hughes join\u00a0the\u00a0Saints, having recently\u00a0won the A-League with former\u00a0side\u00a0Melbourne City for the third time. Could her\u00a0impressive\u00a0history of\u00a0silverware\u00a0help\u00a0put\u00a0Southampton on track for success heading into their\u00a0opening fixture?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whilst\u00a0last season\u2019s standings would suggest that Southampton are the stronger of the sides,\u00a0the head-to-head\u00a0history\u00a0between these clubs\u00a0show\u00a0that this\u00a0clash could go\u00a0either way.\u00a0Last season\u00a0both meetings ended in a draw, most recently\u00a00-0\u00a0in\u00a0March\u00a0but also 1-1\u00a0back in\u00a0November.\u00a0Will\u00a0Sunday\u2019s fixture\u00a0break\u00a0this pattern, allowing\u00a0either side to\u00a0earn three points\u00a0to kick\u00a0off their season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Durham\u00a0vs\u00a0Southampton Sunday 6th\u00a0September,\u00a0Maiden Castle Sports Park,\u00a012:00pm\u00a0 Five of\u00a0the gameweek one\u00a0fixtures take place on Sunday,\u00a0starting with a\u00a0clash\u00a0between Durham and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-879456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}