Leeds United Women welcomed their largest home crowd of the season at Tadcaster Albion when they hosted Newcastle United on Sunday. 374 fans turned up to watch two of English football’s most historic badges battle it out in the fourth tier, almost a 50% increase on the second-highest gate at the So-Trak Stadium this season, when United fought Stoke City for a coveted fourth-round FA Cup tie against Arsenal.

Why, then, did so many more turn up to watch the Whites fight for a chance to rise as high as third in the Division One North table, when such a rise brings no material benefits? Leeds have lost just twice in seventeen appearances at the So-Trak this term, so the travelling Toon army turned up in numbers, doing their best to strip the Whites’ ground of its home advantage.

All season long head coach Rick Passmoor, like his predecessor Dan O’Hearne, has begrudged the way teams ‘show up’ against Leeds. But the Lady Magpies were competing for much more than the glory of victory over an illustrious club. On Sunday afternoon, Newcastle were just three wins away from a title and promotion to the third tier.

With only one team promoted come the final day, the margin for error in the Division One North is notoriously narrow. Last April, promotion was in Newcastle’s hands before a single defeat to Chorley made the difference between a place in the Northern Premier and another season in Division One North. Newcastle were peerless until the final hurdle, when Liverpool Feds claimed promotion with two league losses to their one.

After consecutive seasons of falling not-quite-so-agonisingly short, last summer signalled the end of the road for Leeds manager O’Hearne. This term, new boss Rick Passmoor is just settling in at the So-Trak, while Newcastle head coach Becky Langley is having her fourth go at promoting the Toon, hoping to beat that tiny margin.

While the management remains the same, things look different from last April. At the start of this season, the women’s side were formally integrated into Newcastle United for the first time and began the process of professionalising as per the wishes of the Saudi owners. The team boasts 38,000 Twitter followers and 24,000 fans who showed up to watch the Toon beat Bradford City at St James’ Park earlier this month. The club’s steps to show they mean business with the women’s side have been answered by fans with an emphatic nod.

It’ll take more than a ‘yes please’ from the north east’s football-crazy hordes, whose nearest Women’s Super League side, Manchester City, play over 140 miles away, to get the Division One North title over the line — but the appetite is there, and Newcastle are doing everything they can to sate it.

Nine months after Leeds scheduled a pre-season friendly for its Premier League side to clash with the Euros final, the city is yet to be given an opportunity to show just how much of Elland Road it could fill with Rachel Daly wannabes. Passmoor’s players have been empowering themselves by converting hard yards into the FAWNL Plate, which stood proudly pitchside as the game got underway.

Leeds kicked off, but Newcastle won a corner twenty-three seconds later, and registered their first shot on target inside two minutes. Just as the Toon’s fans swarmed the stands, Leeds looked outnumbered by Newcastle players on the pitch, not one of whom looked cowed by the memory of throwing it all away against Chorley.

Bianca Owens was not burdened at all by that game — she wasn’t there. With 107 goals in 101 appearances for Norton and Stockton Ancients since 2018, and 99 in 85 in four seasons at Middlesbrough before that, the talismanic striker has long terrorised Leeds and Division One North. But before she could complete her fifth season at the club, she was coaxed away as Newcastle’s title bid was beginning to gather speed.

“It’s very exciting,” she said upon signing in January. “Everybody can see the direction the club wants to go in and I’m just happy to have the chance to be a part of it. The ambition is what drew me to the club. After chatting with staff and understanding the direction the club is heading, I knew I wanted to be here.”

How could she resist? The investment and improvements Newcastle are making to their women’s set-up are creating an offer attractive enough to sever loyalties. Since arriving, Owens has added five goals that may help them over the line come the final day, when the promotion scrap with Durham Cestria is likely to be decided on goal difference.

On Sunday, she showed she can create them too, setting Kacie Elson loose to breeze past Savanna Robson for the first before rising higher than Abbie Brown and Catherine Hamill to head home the second inside seventeen minutes.

Her contributions meant that by midway through the first half, Newcastle had done enough to ease off the hounding that had run Leeds ragged in the early stages. With marginal gains on their mind and two games left to play, Newcastle didn’t need to sweat over a third — especially with their net guarded by Grace Donnelly who, with a leap, prevented Jess Rousseau halving the deficit with a stunning top-corner effort. At the other end Carrie Simpson saved well to limit the title-chasers’ advantage, with the help of a heroic double goal line clearance by Sarah Danby.

Newcastle didn’t need another goal, but they’d take one when given half the chance. Five minutes after the break, any regrouping in Passmoor’s dressing room was out the window as Leeds surrendered possession from a goal kick. It wasn’t simple for Elson; an overhit pass sent her to the byline, but she still found the top corner from a tight angle.

Simpson stretched but got nowhere near the free kick which Georgia Gibson sent flying into her net on the hour, and ten minutes later Leeds rolled out the red carpet for Owens, who had free reign again to head the ball, once to control it, once more to send it over Simpson’s punching fist and into the goal.

Going 1-0 down inside five minutes is no fun, but if you concede five goals at any pace against any team, it’s hands-on-hips time. There were twenty minutes left if Leeds wanted to score five unlikely goals. But that was enough time for Abbie Brown to pop up with an eye-catching consolation. With one of her first touches, substitute Danielle Whitham hoofed it long to Brown who, with three neat flicks, popped the ball over Daisy Burt then rifled it past the keeper.

Despite Whitham’s valiant efforts to pick the ball out of the net for a speedy restart, Leeds couldn’t recover the rest of the four-goal deficit, but at least the dominant visitors had a turn at looking glum with their hands on their hips.

After the game ended in a 5-1 defeat, Passmoor put responsibility at his own players’ feet. “We didn’t help ourselves today in any shape or form, the better team clearly won. They played well, but today in those times when it’s rough and challenging, we’ve got to see some characters and personalities, and that’s the area that really disappointed us all today.”

His players are unlikely to be overly-challenged next weekend, as Leeds’ season ends on Sunday with a dead rubber away at relegated Merseyrail.

After Passmoor’s players have worn themselves out squeezing a raft of postponed fixtures into an uncomfortably short period, the FAWNL have extended the season to ensure promotion challengers Durham Cestria and Newcastle United finish their season at the same time on the same day.

Just Barnsley and Bradford City stand between Newcastle and the title and, given their performance against Leeds and the overwhelming support behind them, the chance of the Toon letting it slip this time looks slim. Whichever team stays down, next season Leeds will have to close at least a six win gap to have their own chance of promotion. ⬢