Hayley Sharp heaped praise on Sunderland team-mate Beth Mead after her brace helped them stroll past Doncaster Rovers Belles in FA Women’s Super League 1 with a 4-0 win.

Mead opened the scoring with a neat finish after Leandra Little’s red card for a professional foul put Doncaster on the back foot.

Sharp doubled their lead minutes later before Mead added an outstanding third with a fine finish from 20 yards, although her evening came to a premature end due to injury in the second half.

However, Sunderland continued to push forward and Brooke Chaplen made it four from Madeleine Hill’s pass.

“She is phenomenal. She can score from anywhere. She’s got great ability and she’s only young and I think having her on form is an excellent addition for the team,” said Sharp.

“She works hard, she puts goals away. She’s just an excellent striker.

“It’s nice to finally score a goal but I just put a shift in for the girls. We work together, it’s not a goal for me, it’s a goal for the team and it helped get us a 4-0 win today and we needed the goals.

“We’ve struggled in terms of keeping clean sheets but today’s a great positive, especially for the defence.

“There are great positives in that we do have the ability to keep clean sheets and hopefully can build on that now.”

However, Mead landed heavily after a collision in the air with a Doncaster defender after the break and was stretchered off after a long delay, but fears of a neck injury were soon allayed.

Sunderland Ladies (4-3-3): Laws; Holmes, Brown (Bannon 65), Sharp, Williams; Furness, Staniforth, Hill; Chaplen, Mead (Joice 54), Roche (McDougall 80). Subs (not used): Gunn Olsen, Beer, Potts.

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