The City Ground feels different these days.
Nottingham Forest Women arrive here as a fully professional outfit, high in the Nottingham standings, chasing a promotion dream in a WSL2 that’s expanding, convulsing, and quietly transforming into one of the most cut-throat leagues in the women’s game. It has the energy of a city on the rise, mirrored in museum exhibitions, library tributes, and the buzz of the Nottingham Castle Christmas Market just around the corner.
And as supporters drift toward the Trent for Nottingham Forest W.F.C. vs Sunderland A.F.C. Women, there’s a playful question hanging in the December air:
Will the Forest faithful enjoy their afternoon out, or will they look back and wonder if they’d have been happier staying at home, playing Nottingham Monopoly instead?
Because for all its festive cheer and cultural warmth, this one carries sharp edges. Forest want to prove their investment has muscle. Sunderland need to halt a slide. And the WSL2 is no place for sentiment.
This isn’t just a meeting of two clubs.
It’s a test of direction.
Nottingham Standings & Promotion Stakes at the City Ground
Forest enter Matchday 10 sitting 5th, level on points with Newcastle and just three behind a play-off position. In a season where WSL2 is expanding, and promotion pathways are widening, that gap isn’t a gap at all — it’s an invitation.
A top-three finish earns a shot at a promotion/relegation play-off against a WSL side. That alone has electrified the division. Ambition is contagious. Investment is no longer optional.
Forest, newly promoted and now fully professional, are one of the poster clubs for the league’s transformation. The data shows it clearly:
strong away performances, second-half dominance, and a grinding consistency that hints at something sharper beneath the surface.
Their home form is imperfect — three losses from four at the City Ground — but the identity is unmistakable. This is a squad built to last longer than 90 minutes: score late, run late, duel late. They are strongest when the clock tightens.
Sunderland, meanwhile, sit lower in the Sunderland standings — 10th — and carry the burden of the league’s longest winless streak. The performances haven’t been miserable, the results have. Defensive lapses, concession under pressure, goals slipping away late. Even their recent defeat to Portsmouth turned from control to heartbreak with two stoppage-time goals conceded.
They must steady themselves, and fast.
Emotional Undercurrents & Sunderland By Election Energy
There’s a strange political flavour around Sunderland right now — not in the literal halls of Westminster, but in the tension of needing to convince, rebuild, and prove identity. A Sunderland by election in football form: searching for belief, trying to win back trust, desperate for one positive result to change the narrative.
Their League Cup penalty shootout win over Durham might be that spark. The goalkeeper’s words, the captain’s reflection, the manager’s call for ruthlessness — all sounded like a squad aware of fragility but unwilling to surrender.
And then there’s Jessie Stapleton.
Twenty years old.
FAI Young International Player of the Year.
Formerly on loan at Sunderland, now walking back into the building as an opponent.
These match threads are human before they’re tactical.
Stapleton plays aggressive. Carries cards. Defends with instinct and bite. She knows the players she’ll be facing, knows their patterns, knows what they like to attack.
So does Sunderland. They know her too.
That duel alone could become the pulse of the match.
Nottingham Forest Players to Watch
Forest’s attacking balance is defined by chemistry:
Nahikari García, Spanish international, quietly the team’s rhythm centre, high on creativity and assists.
Aimee Claypole, Player of the Month, incisive in transition, intelligent on the press.
Freya Thomas, midfield engine, now on a fresh deal and coming into her own as a play driver.
Charlie Wellings, consistent threat, knows how to ghost into gaps behind defensive lines.
Jessie Stapleton, the needle, the steel, the emotional subplot.
Each one is a story — and each one represents the bigger shift: Forest are retaining talent, developing roles, and stacking foundations the way a club does when it’s serious about getting out of this division.
Sunderland Standings & Form Snapshot
10th place six-game winless run scoring well but conceding too easily mental lapses in closing moments of matches
Yet there’s threat everywhere:
Emily Scarr, clinical and dangerous, scoring regularly.
Demi Lambourne, penalty-save hero and confidence anchor.
Rhiannon Roberts, captain back from injury, communicating from the back line.
Mary Corbyn, versatile, hungry, long-range finish recently crowned Goal of the Month
Their profile is stark:
They don’t feel like a bottom-end side, but standings are standings, and WSL2 doesn’t reward effort unless it becomes points.
Forest’s Late Surge vs Sunderland’s Early Need
Forest rarely score early — failing to hit first-half goals in nearly all matches — but their second-half surge is powerful. Sunderland concede late. One rises as the other crumbles.
It’s an equation that might define everything.
If Sunderland can flip their identity, shut out the final twenty minutes, force Forest to chase, the job changes. But if Forest get to half-time with control of the ball, climbing tempo, and the mound of evidence that they always find their strike late… it becomes heavy pressure for a side that has cracked in stoppage time before.
Stapleton vs Scarr
One the young stone wall.
One the relentless slashing forward.
Both set the tone for their sides.
Sunderland need Scarr calm and lethal. Forest need Stapleton steadfast and disciplined.
Corbyn vs Thomas/Claypole
Energy midfielders versus a wide-ranging full-back who likes collisions. This is where transitions are born.
Roberts vs Wellings/García
Experience versus chemistry. If Sunderland’s captain sets a defensive shape with clarity, they can force Forest to stall until time becomes panic.
Culture, Place, and Identity
There’s something fitting about this match being staged amid Nottingham’s football heritage. The library’s exhibition — “Nottingham’s Beautiful Game: Our Footballing Story” — is a reminder that this city doesn’t just have football; it breathes it.
Grassroots teams, the history of the terraces, the art, the archives, the old photographs of players who built the culture layer by layer. Forest Women stepping into the City Ground full-time is not a novelty. It’s a continuation.
And against that backdrop, Sunderland arrive representing the grind of football’s north-east: industrial, proud, stubborn, still trying to shape its women’s side into the force it knows it could be.
This isn’t a big match in WSL2 because of standings alone.
It’s big because it asks both clubs who they want to become.
Nottingham Forest vs Sunderland Prediction
Forest have momentum in the underlying numbers. Strong away results, second-half steel, and a roster stacked with players who can break a game late. Sunderland are hungry, physical, emotional — but also vulnerable when time turns hostile.
That could be the hinge.
Forest don’t need to dominate eighty minutes. They just need one swing moment late on, and they are the more likely to find it. Sunderland will battle, they’ll tighten up, they might even lead phases of the match… but unless something deep changes in their ability to finish matches, that final quarter leans red.
Tiny verdict:
Forest edge it.
Not with a flourish, not with a rout, but with the persistence that has carried them all season: control late, and land the decisive touch.
Whatever happens, nobody will wish they’d stayed home to play Nottingham Monopoly.
This fixture has too much blood in it.
And in a WSL2 that keeps raising stakes and reshaping futures, this one — here, now, under the slow breath of winter — feels like one of those afternoons we look back on and say:
Everything started tightening here.
The league.
The standards.
The belief.
How to Watch Nottingham Forest vs Sunderland (Free in the UK)
If you’re in the UK and wondering how to watch Forest vs Sunderland, the good news is this WSL2 clash is completely free to stream. Supporters can watch football online free via the official Barclays Women’s Super League 2 YouTube channel, which hosts full live match broadcasts throughout the season. Simply head to their channel.
With no subscription required, it’s one of the easiest ways to watch football online, catch every minute of Nottingham Forest Women vs Sunderland A.F.C. Women, and keep up with the latest Nottingham standings and Sunderland standings in this increasingly competitive league. Whether you’re searching for watch football free options or just want a direct link to follow the match, this official stream is the go-to destination.
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