SUNDERLAND’S Beth Mead admitted even she found her side’s performance hard to believe as the Lady Black Cats romped to a 4-0 Women’s Super League 1 victory over top-of-the-table Chelsea.

The 20-year-old striker struck three times after the break to put Sunderland out of sight, before Abby Holmes added a fourth late on.

The result sees Sunderland remain above Notts County in second in the Super League table, just two points off the Blues, who will have been shell-shocked to have fallen to their first defeat in 11 games so comprehensively.

And Mead believes the result confirms Sunderland’s status as a side to be reckoned with following their promotion last season.

“The performance was surreal,” said Mead. “Chelsea are top of the league at the moment and they have a load of international players playing for them from different countries.

“We are a team full of Sunderland girls that no one knows, so it’s amazing to have played so well and scored four goals.

“We would have bitten someone's hand off for a point, never mind all three. It is a massive win for us and shows why we should be playing at this level.

“It was a professional performance from us and we controlled the game well, we frustrated them and got the goals, and in the end, we made Chelsea look average.”

Sunderland took the lead in the 54th minute as a mix-up in the Chelsea defence saw Mead clean through, and she made no mistake as she picked her spot in the left-hand corner.

Four minutes later it was 2-0 when a similar mistake by the Blues again saw Mead capitalise, this time from the left-hand side of the area.

Her hat-trick came in the 72nd minute – bundling home the ball on the line – before Holmes added a fourth late on, her cross looping past Hedvig Lindahl into the far corner of the net to leave Chelsea stunned.

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