Durham got the new season off to the perfect start with a win in front of a home crowd against Sheffield United.

A strike from Mollie Lambert and a debut goal from Carly Johns either side of Eva Butler’s leveller left the Wildcats purring on the opening day of the campaign.

The result means Durham started the 24/25 season the way they ended the last, with three points at home.

Lambert’s sweeping strike from 20 yards in the 11th minute opened the scoring before Butler responded by bundling home amid a goalmouth scramble. Johns’ debut goal put the hosts back ahead in the 55th minute.

Durham started the game full of energy with two early chances in the game’s opening five minutes. The first, directly from kick off could have provided the perfect start to the season, but Lily Crosthwaite’s delivery evaded Wilson in the box.

Moments later Wilson again found herself with a chance after Johns got on the end of a loose ball from the keeper. But Wilson couldn’t find the net with her curled effort.

It was another strong piece of passing play that saw Durham go ahead after Johns combined with Beth Hepple.

Hepple laid the ball back for Lambert to smash it home into the left corner from 20 yards.

The Blades responded well to going behind and were able to hold onto the ball better, bringing about two good saves from Tatiana Saunders midway through the first half.

Durham kept causing issues down the right-hand side and Crosthwaite, who had a fine afternoon, was able to create some chances weaving between Blades players.

Just before half time, a corner swung in by Sheffield’s Maria Farrugia resulted in a goal-line scramble with shirts of all colours flung towards the ball. But it eventually fell kindly for Butler who poked home her first senior goal to level the game.

The second half started in a similar fashion to the first with a slew of chances for the hosts, but the best – a cross-cum-shot from Blake – couldn’t be turned in by Johns.

Crosthwaite’s ability with the ball created sparks of activity in the channel whenever she had the ball at her feet. She drove at the area and the ball ended up bouncing kindly for Carly Johns who snuck her shot into the far corner via the base of the post.

Durham were back in front and the 877-strong home crowd were back in full voice.

Compounding the misery for Sheffield was the rain that made the pitch even quicker, playing into Crosthwaite’s hands as she continued exploiting space between the full back and centre half.

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Inside the final 15 minutes, Johns thought she had bagged a brace, but her shot was hooked off the line despite beating the keeper. In the moments after, Lambert went to ground in the box under a firm challenge but the referee was unmoved, angering the Durham faithful.

A handful of chances from Johns and Crosthwaite in the game’s dying minutes were never really enough to challenge Sian Rogers in the net for the Blades.

Durham pick up three points to begin their season in the hope that they are not dragged into a relegation like last term.

On this showing, the team should have a lot of belief in their abilities to stay up.

Next up for the Wildcats is a trip to the south coast to play Portsmouth on September 14.